


A Life With You

by CaptainAmericaontheTardis



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Daredevil (TV), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Drug Use, Agender Character, Alternate Universe - Space, Androids, Angst, Angst and Humor, Backstory, Cyborgs, Evil Grant Ward, F/F, Fights, First Dates, First Kiss, First Meetings, Fluff and Humor, Heist, Illegal Activities, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Overdosing, Political Alliances, Prison, Prison Escape, Robot Dogs, Running Away, Slow Build, Space Pirates, The Moon - Freeform, Treasure Hunting, Unconventional Relationship, Undercover Missions, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 17:34:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 41,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5384357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainAmericaontheTardis/pseuds/CaptainAmericaontheTardis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You're a wonder; how bright you shine; A flickered candle in a short lifetime. A secret dreamer that never shows, if no one sees you then nobody knows." -Josh Groban </p><p>Natasha Romanov is a lowly mechanic on one of the largest Pirate ships in the void, day in and day out she does the same work until one day she is finally pulled into the pirating world headfirst. Darcy is a princess from a planet torn by civil war and she escapes, hoping to find the cure for both her broken soul and her broken people. Their lives will intertwine in ways they never could have expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! So this story is going to be a prequel to my last fanfiction, "The Dividing Lines" If you want to check that out here's the link! http://archiveofourown.org/works/4865810/chapters/11152574
> 
> I will be updating this story every Tuesday and Thursday ( I may start updating three times a week later in the story) 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this and please feel free to comment! :D

“Hey, uh, Nat, could you come to the back?” The intercom spoke through Natasha’s dark and crowded room.

She was lying sideways on her bed with her arm draped over her eyes. She groaned as the engineer finished speaking and plopped her arm beside her.

“Be there in a minute, Jack.”

“Thank you.”

The intercom beeped off and she threw her arm back over her face, not wanting to get up or interact with anybody this morning. Her room was dark as hell, exactly how she liked it, even the small window that looked out over the void as they passed by it at incredible speeds was covered up with a makeshift curtain.

Around the bed there were tables of varying sizes and materials, from metal to wood, on each table was a mess of panels, bot pieces, and wires, strewn across each surface in no particular order or organization.

It took her several minutes but eventually she drooped her body upwards and rubbed her face, looking around at the dim surroundings that her eyes had already adjusted to. 

She stood up and stretched, she was wearing an oversized white shirt and a black vest with pockets for tools and materials. Her pants were grey and comfortable with the same large pockets that matched her vest. All her clothes were old and worn except for her wide boots that looked military issued.

Her bright red hair was long and pulled back haphazardly in a makeshift bun, keeping only parts of her hair out of her face, the rest was flying all over her face and ears.

She yawned and glanced around before pawing blindly through the mess on the tables, she threw wires and panels around, some of them falling on the floor or clanking against other pieces of equipment.

Eventually she moved a large panel and she felt the tools that she was looking for, she grabbed them and dropped them into one of her vest pockets. She reached behind her and grabbed onto a small piece of cloth, sticking it into her pants pocket. The last thing that she did before she headed out the door was to find a small knife next to her bed and slip it carefully into the side of her left boot.

She cringed as the door opened and the brightly lit hallway burned her eyes, she grumbled and stumbled to the right down the hall.

It was 2:00 in the fucking morning and she had just gotten back to bed a half an hour ago. Jack knew that and that was probably why they acted so hesitant when they called her up a few minutes ago.

Living on “The Righteous Man” there was no time for sleep it seemed, at least for Natasha Romanov. She was on the bottom of the rung in the crew, a simple mechanic that handled everything from malfunctioning engineering bots to lost cats. Nothing was ever terribly hard to do but the assignments never stopped and she lived on the bottom floors of one of the greatest pirate ships ever to move through the void.

She was grateful, she really was, when Captain Nick Fury found her trying to sneak onto his ship running away from the orphanage she was in, he could have just as easily killed her, turned her into the authorities, left her, or taken her to sell as a slave, but instead he gave her a disappointed look, shook his head, and said “You’re going to have to do better next time, kid.”

He had given her a room and told her that she was going to have to earn her keep on the ship, threatening that he would drop her off at the nearest planet if she did not work.

After that, she had never seen him again, he worked on the bridge along with the rest of his crew and she stayed down below, working as a laborer for just about everyone. When he had let her stay she had been looking forward to living the rest of her life as a grand adventure, a cutthroat pirate, and yes, since she had come aboard they had been in many battles and done many disrupting things but she had always barely been apart of it.

The only person of high rank on the ship that she worked with on a regular basis was the engineer, Jack Roth, an agender, eccentric and brilliant criminal straight from the prisons of Venus. They proudly sported a bright purple Mohawk, and had to be told many times a day to put on more clothes. Natasha had wondered before how someone like Nick Fury put up with Jack, but despite their eccentric nature, Roth always got the job done. Something that she realized was more important to Fury than anything else in a person.

But even then, she only saw Jack in passing and they usually just relayed a job or a need to her and then went back to work. But at least the engineer gave her the time of day, asked her how she was or how big her work load was before dashing off to handle another crisis.

It seemed like, although she felt she had a lot of potential, she never had an opportunity to prove it, especially to Fury or even his second in command, Maria Hill. These days she didn’t even like to look out the windows because they made her long for a different life.

She made her way through the lower parts of the Righteous man, not really the magnificent parts like the floors above them. The engine and needed supports took up several floors, not to mention the experimentation rooms that Fury kept just to continually improve his ship.

She could make this walk in her sleep, through the chaos that was the lower engine area. Around her people were running around, yelling various things, mostly from the engineers who worked with experimentation and scientific knowledge, she saw one guy on fire and another who fell from one of the upper consoles, plopping down with a grunt and then standing up and brushing herself off before heading back up to the console she was working on.

She strolled into one of the back rooms lazily, Jack was talking to a group of crewmembers, they looked up as she approached.

“Finally, I called you, like—Gertrude, go and check on 22HP&Y65 of the propulsion systems.” Jack looked back at Natasha, “Yes?”

She sighed, “You called me, Jack.”

He put a hand up, “Right, yes, I did…” Their eyes wondered again and Natasha snapped her fingers in front of their face. Jack jumped and shook their head, they said in a rushed voice, “Tiffany’s arm is fucked up again, and can you help her?”

Before she had a chance to say anything, Jack was rushing away yelling something about proper turbine care. Natasha sighed and walked to the back. Sure enough, one of the androids that worked in engineering was sitting patiently on a chair. Her arm was split down the wrist and wires were poking out dangerously.

Natasha cringed; it looked painful even though she knew that androids didn’t have pain receptors. It hurt her more to look at it than it did Tiff. She looked up as the mechanic walked up and began setting her tools down on the table.

“Again, Tiffany, you know, one of these days your arm is just going to come off and I won’t be able to fix that as easily.”

She smiled, she was a well made, next generation android which meant that she tended to conform more to humanities standards as to what an android should act like, but luckily, she still had her own personality. Her skin was dark and she had a small, well trimmed afro, her teeth were straight and perfectly white.

“I guess I am just a sucker for helping. And I am able to do things that biological organisms are not able to do” She said, holding her arm up as Natasha pulled a piece of her skin away from the damaged area.

“They have bots for putting limbs into fans and oil traps. Next time, send one of those in.” A piece of the android’s arm sparked and Natasha jumped back.

“They are not as intelligent as an android, you know this Natasha.”

The red head rolled her eyes, “You know, the self sacrificial nature of you next gens aren’t always for the best, despite what you think. You could have used the bots and even if they were destroyed, it wouldn’t have been as big of an issue to fix.”

Tiffany sighed, “I hate when you refer to us as ‘next gens’.”

“I know, sorry, force of habit. I just worry about you guys, and especially you. This is the third time I’ve have to repair an entire limb for you this month. I’m just saying, take it easy.”

“I just injured my wrist this time?”

Natasha looked up and switched tools, “No, I’m going to have to work on your arm here too, the damage goes up to your shoulder. I hope you don’t have anything to do in the next two hours.”

Tiffany smiled, “I do not. And although your concerns are misguided, I do thank you for your concern over my well being.”

“Misguided?” Natasha raised an eyebrow.

“You do not understand the importance of personal touch when it comes to running this ship.

“You mean, because I think the bots should take over for you, sometimes?” Natasha asked skeptically.

“No, because you would be willing to send in a dull bot to handle an issue within the engine rather than a being who, not only cares about the well being of the ship, but also has the ability to detect added issues in the area. We are where we are today because of personal commitment and sacrifice.”

Natasha frowned, “Self sacrifice to what exactly?”

“To the ship and her mission, of course.” Tiffany said as if it were obvious.

“You mean, to Fury and his personal agenda, right?”

“Dedication to a captain is highly underrated; to succeed we have to have a leader worth following.”

Natasha sighed and wiped her forehead, she shook her head trying to wake herself up so that she could focus better, “I mean, whatever, self sacrifice for a person is great and all but, no one is worth dying over. It’s survival of the fittest and yeah, Fury has definitely thrived but not without the help of this massive crew.”

“No one is worth dying for?”

Natasha groaned, “No, they're not.”

“Not even someone you love?”

The mechanic glanced up at the android, “Love is for children. Let’s change the subject, yeah? I can’t do philosophical with two hours of sleep.”

Tiffany agreed and then she proceeded to converse lightly with the mechanic as she worked diligently on her arm. As she said, she was not able to fix the wrist alone and she ended up having to work her way up the android’s arm, fixing what burned out and even replacing a few receptors.

The entire operation took about two hours and twenty minutes. The whole time they chatted idly about various current events happening in the universe at that time. 

Tiffany had just left, thanking Natasha and giving her a very stiff hug. The redhead began putting her supplies back into her pockets when Jack practically jumped through the door. She barely looked up, this was usual for their behavior. Natasha just wanted to get back to her room so that she could go to sleep. 

“Nat! Guess what?” They turned their head and the many gold earrings clattered with the movement.

She sighed, “What?” She asked, barely registering what they were talking about. 

“Cap’n’s got a new job, he’s giving me a team this time.” They grinned, “And I want you on it.”

Her eyes widened and she looked at Jack as her interest was peaked, “What? Why?”

He shrugged, “ ‘Cause I’m sick of you complaining; ‘Cause I know you’re good for it, does it really matter? You coming?”

She felt overwhelmed, “Um-- I mean, yeah, of course. A real misson!”

Jack chuckled, “Then suit up.” They turned and walked down the engineering annex. 

Natasha threw her tools down and ran after them, “Wait, you mean now?!”

“Of course I mean now, we’ll be there in an hour.” They continued to walk, glancing at everything as they passed. 

“You mean Fury just up and decided to do a job with no warning?”

Jack looked back, “I mean, no, not really, he’s been planning this one for a few months but -- Uh-- I forgot, so-- Yeah” They pulled out a hand held and began scanning a panel, when the light turned green they continued to move. 

Natasha stopped in the middle of the floor and looked down, trying to process this information. Jack finally looked back at her and sighed, apparently feeling guilty, “Hey, don’t worry, this is going to be a piece of cake.”

“Yeah?”

They smiled, “Yeah, unless there are booby traps, or we can’t hold the item and it consumes us and dematerializes us from the inside out...”

Natasha’s face dropped, 

“But I think we should be fine, I probably have the right stuff..”

After that, she didn’t ask anymore questions. 

She was exhausted but soon she realized that she was the only member of the crew that Jack had invited on this mission and a half an hour later she and Jack were the only ones standing on the transport pad. 

Her heart was pounding in her chest and Jack put a reassuring hand on her shoulder with a wide grin, "Hey, don't be nervous, this may be the greatest thing to happen to you, your first real mission. The start of something great."

She chuckled stiffly, "When I imagined my first time in the field I though I would have more than two hours of sleep."

Jack tilted their head, "You've had sleep?"

Natasha took a breath and stared at the blank wall in front of them. She was definitely going to die out there.


	2. Anything That Can Go Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha goes on her very first solo mission and everything would be going perfectly if not for the fact that everything goes wrong, also, A princess escapes from her captivity and runs away to freedom.

“You’ve got to be kidding me...” Natasha was squatting down, waist deep in sewage water, she and Jack were the only ones down here and they were making their way, extremly slowly through the thick disgusting water. This was not what she had imagined when she took this job 3 hours ago. 

She shined her light around the tunnel with an apparent grimace on her face, “What even is this place?”

Jack glanced behind to where she was following, they had the same air tight suit and oxygen helmet that Natasha was wearing on, except the helmet was not able to cover the thick mass of purple hair and strands were surrounding their face through the glass, “We’re in Pacis, some planet in the andromeda galaxy, apparently their defenses are low because of some civil war.”

They came to their first obstacle, discounting the sewage water that plagued their every step, it was a wall that covered the entirety of the tunnel, pushing the water into the branching path. Jack, inspected it for a moment, using their thumb and forefinger to measure something in their head. Natasha was curious as to what they were going to do. 

Jack stuck a hand out, “Crowbar, please.”

Natasha thought for a moment, “Why don’t we just cut through it?” She asked, patting a laser in one of her pockets.

They sighed, “Just trust me here, you trust me right?”

“No.” She said blatently but she handed him the crowbar, a tool which must have been at least a hundred years old and from one of the original colonies. Since it was a tool that was even needed anymore.

Jack thanked her and continued to measure something in their head, a second later they were hitting the wall with the crowbar with all the grace of a rhino on skates. Natasha’s hands went to her ears as the pounding continued. A few moments later the wall crumbled and Jack stood to the side to admire their work. 

Jack sighed, satisfied, “Here’s a tip, it’s always good to get out some nerves before you get to the delicate part.”

“That is if they didn’t hear us in the next freaking solar system.” She commented dryly.

Jack chuckled but continued down the tunnel, the sewer water following them down through the newly made hole. 

“What are we getting in here anyway?”

Jack shrugged, “I.d.k, some soul stone or ancient artifact close to that. Fury’s been planning this one for months and he's got us coming up from underground into the vault. If we don’t die containing it, it should be a pretty sweet catch.”

“It better be worth treading five miles in sewage. And are you just saying that because I’m not allowed to know or are you really just that oblivious?”

Jack looked at her from under their purple hair and winked, “Hey, if you constantly worry about the little things you'll go crazy out here in the void.” They laughed maniacally. 

Natasha smirked, “Wow, that seems legit coming from you.” She said with heavy sarcasm. 

They continued down the tunnel of disgust for another hour until they came across a hidden door at the end, more like a sophisticated vault door. Natasha wouldn’t have even seen it if not for Jack as somehow they managed to scope it out like it was obvious.

The round vault wall was covered in layers upon layers of muck, moss, and tree roots, it took them a while just to cut through it to get to where they needed to be, when they had cleared it enough to see it, Jack took a step back and crossed their arms, “Alright.. I’ll hold the tool bag.”

They bent over and picked up the bag, pulling a laser out of it and some stethoscope like materials.

Natasha paused, “Excuse me?”

“You’ll want to be careful once you get in, the entire vault is motion, heat, and vibration sensitive. I think it might need DNA samples as well…” They said, looking off into space.

“You’re the engineer here, Jack!”

They didn’t respond but placed a sensor in the palm of her hand and watched her expectantly.

“Jack!” she tried again.

They snapped out of their trance, “What was that?”

“You’re the one who is trained to do this, why are you making me do this?”

They didn’t have to think about it for very long, “You need the practice, plus Fury wanted me to train you a bit on this mission…”

“I don’t think this is what he meant, Jack.:”

They shrugged, “It’s fine, are you worried?”

Natasha’s mouth dropped in disbelief and they continued, “Don’t be worried, it’s just a vault, plus I’ll take over once we get inside to get the item.”

Natasha sighed and looked down at the sensor in her hand, “Fine..”

Jack smiled, “Great. Now make sure to watch out for the self destruct feature in the vault.”

.

.

.

Above ground at around the same time a woman was dropping down from a two story window and landing clumsily on a balcony. The city was incredibly dark at night, even the homes and businesses did not help to light the way since the early curfew had been put into place.

The woman was wearing a long thick coat to shield herself from the cold night air of her home planet. She carried only a knapsack over her shoulder and a black scarf covering her neck and face.

Her hair was long, wild and messy as she moved crouched down over to the right side of the balcony. Her eyes darted everywhere, searching for guards or anyone that would try to stop her.

The brunette looked over the edge of the decorative fence to the ground below and she made a little whining noise. But she threw her leg over the side and held her breath, climbing carefully and tensely down the decorative fence.

She was nearly to the point where her foot would be able to reach the next level when a loud, scolding voice cried from above her, “Hey! Stop!”

She jumped and let go of the fence, despite her efforts to grab onto the next level balcony, her fingers just missed the edge and she went tumbling down into the garden below with a crack and a thud.

Alarms were beginning to sound around the palace and heavy footsteps could be heard on the floors above, soon the entire city would be crawling with guards and patrols. 

The fleeing woman groaned and rolled herself out of one of the hedges, she was clutching at her wrist but the adrenaline was keeping the pain at bay, at least for the time being. She shook herself and looked around in a panic, she patted around her realizing that she had lost her bag.

She began to search the ground, the footsteps were coming closer and she began ripping away at the flowers and the bushes, her fingers came across the soft blue material of her bag and she grabbed it, not looking behind her as she ran.

On the ground where she landed, several of her items had fallen on the ground in her rush to leave. A minute later those items were trampled into the garden as patrols began piling out of the palace, looking for the escaped princess.

She ran through the city, keeping the map that she had memorized in her head so that she could know where to go, running at full speed through the darkened city. They would have shut off power to all modes of transport by now and alerted the citizens to detain her if they found her near their homes. At this point she was on her own.

She raced through the city without looking back, twenty minutes later she was running up on the docking zone of the city. It was the only place that was still awake at this time of day, with crew members of the various ships meandering around their ships as they dropped off supplies or picked up materials.

She slipped inside the door and drifted into the crowd. She only had a few minutes at best until the alarm reached this area and everything would be put on lock down, no matter the strain that it would put on their schedules.

People looked at her funny, but their were so many different types of individuals in this part of the capitol that most of them just shrugged and continued on their way. She did not know if she was imagining it but she felt like she could hear the guards coming after her and it just made her heart race faster.

The dock was lined with about fifty ships, this was a foreign docking center and her planet was not known for their intergalactic trading laws so they were pushed to the sides of the city limits, in an attempt to avoid contamination from foreign cultures and business practices. She stared at the different ships, most of them had their ramps down, and their security was relaxed but many of them had people moving in and out of the ship. She would get seen for sure.

She spotted a quiet ship in the corner, no one was coming in or out but its ramp was down, she headed for it and stopped at the bottom of the ramp. She noticed immediately the huge size of this ship and she concluded that it must be transporting ship parts or warp cores. Perfect for hiding in plain sight, she thought.

She didn’t see the name but she snuck aboard, disabling the sensors at the opening just like she had taught herself so that it would be more difficult to see that someone new had boarded. 

It wasn’t a full proof plan but it would be able to help her get on board this ship. When she entered the large ship she moved through the halls, coming in contact with various people and species as she did, it was strange. They barely even noticed her presence.

One woman, with a shaved head and a large earring that took up half of her head stopped her and asked her, “Hey, are you one of Fury’s new projects?” She was a short and bulky woman with tan skin wearing nothing but baggy pants and suspenders on a bare torso.

She smiled shyly and nodded her head unsure of what was meant by that, she was about to continue on her way, tense and ready to run since she had begun to hear alarms from outside, it would be no time at all until this ship was stopped and searched.

The woman stopped her, with a smirk, “Cool, I’m Pua, what you so jumpy about?”

She was about to answer when Pua continued, “It’s safe here, here, take a map and chill, yeah?”

She handed Darcy a handheld holographic map, “Thank you—what about the searches?” she asked, fear coming through clearly in her voice.

Pua laughed, “They ain’t going to search us, kid, don’t worry about it.” She patted the runaway princess on the back and left her in the hallway.

Darcy read the map, it was extremely detailed and she found all the little hiding spots in the interior of the ship, used mostly for engineering checks and repairs. She climbed her way into one of the repair vents and finally stopped in a small room, a ladder going through the ship next to her.

She pulled her coat around her and she sighed, attempting to calm down slightly. They had not found her and no one here seemed to notice her presence, it must have been a rather large crew for no one to notice. This ship must have transported materials to all corners of the known universe. She was glad that she had chosen this ship and not one of the other smaller ones.

She prided herself on her good fortune and closed her eyes and attempted to fall asleep.

 

.

.

.

Natasha and Jack were nearly into the interior when Fury’s angry voice surrounded the vault and Natasha and Jack’s entrance through the intercom, “Get your asses out of their, we’re compromised.” He said sharply.

Both of the robbers were startled, they were so close to getting inside, with Jack’s help, she had been able to get through the vaults defenses and she was just about to open their way in, then they would be facing their loot.

Jack moved to their communicator, “We’re about done here, Cap, three more minutes.”

They heard a sigh from the other side, “You have two.” He said and then it cracked off.

They began moving at twice the speed as they had been and Natasha pulled the large piece of metal out in a circular formation. She ducked underneath the opening and rushed inside, she was ready to get her prize but when she ran up to it her shoulders fell, “Jack, we have a problem.”

They jumped in behind her and began cursing along with an out of place laugh of amusement. Instead of something powerful and otherworldly, they were faced with what looked like a stuffed toy. Grey and old it was laid haphazardly in the container where their treasure should have been.

“You know, I think Fury’s losing his touch.” Jack said, rubbing their face.

Natasha moved past him and grabbed the toy off out of the container, “Or we’ve been double crossed, come on!”

"Yeah, or that."

The door to the vault crashed open and twenty guards flooded into the room just after the two pirates moved back into the sewer. They had an alternate route to take to get out, one which didn’t take nearly as long to get to.

They dashed through the sewage and darted up the ladder at the end of the tunnel. Natasha felt like crying when she took a breath of fresh air, but her joy didn’t last long as green lights were flashed into her eyes and the shouting, angry voices moved towards them.

Natasha closed her eyes as the chaos erupted and she flinched her arms in front of her face.

Just when she though she was about to either get captured or shot she felt the tingling sensation of the transporter and a moment later she was in the same position on the floor of one of the transporter rooms.

Both her and Jack took a deep breath and collapsed on the floor. No one seemed to care that they were there and the entire ship was bustling the crew running to their positions because apparently, they were taking off immediately.

Natasha groaned, “What the hell happened down there?”

Jack was about to speak when Fury’s entered the room, hands behind his back looking utterly terrifying as usual. This was the first time Natasha had seen him since he rescued her all those years ago.

“What happened was some political crisis fucked up our plan, we have to leave this area immediately. Did you get it?”

Jack attempted to stand up, “Well, I mean, we got something, but it wasn’t a magical rock of destiny or whatever..”

Fury held out a hand and Jack placed the stuffed toy in his hand. Fury looked at it silently.“We’ve been played.” 

Then he walked away, taking the toy with him. He came back through the door before the other two would be able to get up, he tossed the toy at Natasha, “Here. Souvenir.”

Natasha sat back on the floor with a thud, the mysterious toy in her lap. 

"Well--" Jack said looking down at her and offering a helping hand, "At least you learned the most important lesson to becoming a criminal."

"And what is that?" Natasha took their hand and let herself be helped up on her feet.

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."


	3. Music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha and her crew begin to look into what exactly went wrong on the planet's surface and after Natasha discovers something behind the walls that will change everything.

Natasha sighed, deep in thought as she tinkered with one of the engineering bots that had malfunctioned and tasered one of the crew mates, luckily they were fine but they did kick the thing and immediately yell for Natasha to fix it. Ever since the debacle on the heist, her first heist, her mind had been wondering. Both because she was afraid of the consequences since they had failed and also why had some princess decided that night of all nights to to break free?

The bot shrieked when she got too close to it’s mainframe and she turned to grab a pair of smaller tools, she stopped when she saw the Grey toy that she had stuffed into one of her pockets. She shook her head and stuffed it deeper, grabbing her tool and turning the bot off so that it would stop making noise. 

“Hey, Nat.”

She jumped, knocking off a few pieces of metal that surrounded her on her work bench, she turned around angrily, “What is it, Jack?” She said through clenched teeth. 

They put their hands up, “Peace, man, I just wanted to take you to the meeting that Fury is holding so that we can all talk about our failure on the planet. Because that’s smart and mature apparently..” They looked off, lost in thought again, “So you coming?”

“Why would they even let me in there?” Natasha looked at them skeptically. 

Jack scoffed, “That’s not a good attitude, besides, you were there when everything went to hell, you deserve to be there. Also, I fucked up and I don’t want to go alone.” they added sheepishly. 

Natasha rolled her eyes, “Fine. But if you get me shot out into space I’m taking you with me.”

Jack grinned, “Fair enough ‘cause I will throw you under the bus if it comes down to it.”

Natasha stood up and threw her mechanic’s belt over her shoulder and stepped up to the purple haired engineer, “Let’s go then.” 

“How did you even end up here, Jack, I’m curious.” Natasha asked as they made their walk up to the bridge where this "meeting" was being held. 

It was strange, a pirate ship, a literal crimminal vessel and somehow she felt like she was working on a military ship. Although, many said that this strict regimen was the reason that Nick Fury was so sucessful and had so many relations with people in high places from all over the void. 

They scratched their head and made a clicking sound that almost resembled a laugh, “It’s a long story, but basically I met Fury during one of those black market auction things on Tah’Woh, we, uh, got along and now I work for him.”

Her eyes widened, “Oh my god, Jack, you slept with Fury?” She asked, shocked.

Jack shrugged, “Well, I mean, yeah. We were both intoxicated and young, you know how those things are, child.” He added quickly. 

“I’m like seven years younger than you, Jack.”

“Anyway, we had some time to chat after that, Fury was brilliant and so was I.” They smiled and Natasha kept staring at them with her mouth wide open. 

“You slept with captain Fury..” She said quietly to herself and they rolled their eyes. They were a few steps ahead when Natasha spoke again, apparently over the initial shock, “Wait, I heard that Fury broke you out of a prison on Venus?”

Jack stepped through the elevator door and the redhead followed, they told the lift where they wanted to go and it began to speed upwards, “Yeah, that was a while later. Bit of a shock when he did that.”

“You mean, you guys didn’t plan that?”

“Nope, hadn’t heard from him in years, heard an explosion and next thing you know there was a hole in the building. Fury stepped up and told me that he needed my help and that he was sick of incompetent criminals.”

“And you’re not an incompetant criminal?” She jabbed, 

They ignored her and continued, “Then we went on to find the finger bone of some dead king.” They said it as if it was a really good memory. 

“He wanted you to find a finger bone?” She asked skeptically. 

Jack wiggled their hand, “Well, it was more the giant shiny rock on it that really made the big bucks. But Fury let me keep the finger.” They said with a smile, putting their hand in their pocket and pulling out a dried up knuckle bone, “Good old king Miredom The Black Heart, always brings me luck.”

Natasha grimaced, “That’s lovely.” She said dryly.

They nodded, apparently not hearing her tone, the lift stopped and they stepped out onto the large and impressive bridge of The Righteous Man. A intimidating looking woman turned around when they entered. 

“You’re late.” She said curtly. 

Jack gave her a big toothy grin, “Time is an illusion, commander Hill.”

The woman shook her head, looking past Jack and straight at Natasha, “Are you Romanov?” Natasha nodded quickly, nervously.

“Speak up.” She said and then turned, beckoning them to one of of the doors on their right.

Natasha glanced at Jack and they explained quickly, “Maria Hill, Fury’s right hand woman. A rogue agent from somewhere in the Milky Way.”

“Huh, “ Natasha began, “Seems like Fury picks up a lot like that.”

Jack chuckled, “Yeah, except I think that it was the opposite with Hill. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”

Natasha wondered if the commander could hear them, if she was trusting Jack, she probably could and she was continuing to dig herself into a deeper hole. Hill gave them a quick glance and Natasha tried to give her an apologetic look but she didn’t know if it went through.

“Where did you hear that?” The redhead asked, more quietly this time.

“Well, I mean, from the computer.. Where I was looking into her deepest and most hidden files..” Jack cleared their throat and then slipped past Hill into a very formal

Looking room with a long metal table in the middle. Fury was standing at the end and he sighed as they walked in.

“You’re late.” He said sharply.

Natasha jumped slightly but Jack just smiled, “So we’ve been told, Cap’n, now what are we here for.”

The captain’s head tilted slightly, “Did you read the message I sent to everyone?”

“We can message each other?”

Fury rolled his eye and then turned around, turning on a small holographic projector waiting until it had constructed the image he was waiting for.

The item it was showing was a chunk of wood, or at least that’s what it looked like, it was probably about the size of a human hand and it had sharp edges around it’s dull appearance.

Fury turned around to them and the rest of the crew that was attending, he pointed to the image, “This is what we lost last night.”

Jack raised their hand and Fury promptly sighed, “What?”

“Respectfully, Captain, I though we were going after an expensive piece of rock not a chunk of oak. I could’ve gotten that for you with a wood chipper, and I wouldn’t have been shot at.”

Fury ignored them and turned back around, “This item has many names but we call it the key of Anima , there is only one in the entire universe and it was held in the vaults of Pacis, it has been for centuries.”

“A key? Not treasure?” Jack, of course, spoke up.

Hill shook her head, “A key.” She confirmed. Jack made an Impressed, “Huh!” noise and sat back in their chair. Natasha nudged them with her elbow to signal to them to be quiet.

Fury continued, “We’ve been fucked over and the second that we find this bastard, they’re going to know the meaning of the word fear.” He threatened to no one in particular.

One of the crew, a short pirate with ankle length straight black hair, named Thi Phan made a loud whooping noise and hit her fist in the air. A moment later the room was surrounded with the sounds of cheering pirates.

Fury didn’t silence them but when he spoke again everyone went silent again, “We need to find out who would have the resources and the motive to steal this thing out from underneath us. We need to look at who we’ve fucked in the past, who would be coming after us now. Finding people won’t be very hard but finding locations might be. I expect results within the next 24 hours. We’re going to get this son of a bitch and then we’re going to get our reward.” He finished the room broke out in wild cheers, as if they were in a bar whose favorite sports team had just won.

He tapped on the screen again and everyone went silent, four faces came into view with profiles. "Let's start with these." He tapped the first picture and the picture zoomed in, "Peggy Carter, AKA Miss Union Jack, treasure hunter."

Pua then pointed out, "Union Jack ain't been in the Andomeda in years, why would she be trying to fuck us over now?"

"As far as we know." Fury answered, "She's got aliases all over the void and this hit matches her M.O. It's worth a look." Then he continued his list, "Also, check out Matt Murdock, Gamora, and Wanda Maximoff, this job could easiyly be any of theirs."

Hill looked over at Fury, "I think that we should also look into America Chavez, she's young but she's been making waves. This could be a grab for power."

Fury nodded, "Add her to the list. Now get to work." He ordered. 

They had all begun to pile out when Fury called over the crew, “Romanov, my room. Now.” She stopped dead in the doorway and her face went red, beside her, Jack shrugged and turned to go with her. Fury put a hand up, “Just Romanov, Roth.”

They glanced at Natasha and smiled, patting her on the shoulder, “Aww, be good in there by yourself, okay?”

The redhead rolled her eyes and Jack continued, “I’ll be back to pick you up at 3, yeah? Be good and I’ll see you soon.” They made a fake sniffling sound, “I’m so proud—“ They said through their fake face of despair. Natasha punched the purple haired engineer in the arm and pushed them away.

However, when they left through the door, her heart jumped and she walked through the sliding doors at the end of the room. When she entered, Fury was already sitting comfortable at a large metal desk, reading through something. At the side of his desk Hill was standing with her arms behind her back at attention.

Natasha didn’t quiet understand that, this was a pirate ship, not a military vessel. However, If Hill was going to scare her into submission, it was definitely a good look. Natasha approached the desk and held her hands tightly at her side. “Yes?”

It took him a moment to respond but a few moments later he looked up from what he was reading and looked the red head up and down critically, “You were on the planet, I want you to help follow up on the thief.”

Natasha nodded and her eyes glanced at Hill who was inspecting her carefully, “I honestly thought I was already going to, at least, I know Roth did.”

“Roth is a nutball.” Hill spoke up, “The best at their job but still a nutjob, don’t take anything they say for granted.”

“I wanted to let you know personally, Romanov.” Fury said, ignoring their discussion about his engineer, “Don’t disappoint me.”

Natasha was just having a weird little daydream examining the idea of Nick Fury sleeping with Jack Roth of all people, it was a strange image and it just confused her more but when he reminded her to do a good job it shook her out of her own thoughts and she nodded quickly.

The room went silent and she wasn’t sure exactly what she was supposed to do until Hill gestured for her to leave and she turned to go out the door. Once she was outside in the meeting area she realized that Hill had followed her out and she turned to face the second in command.

Natasha jumped as Maria put a firm hand on her arm and patted it robotically, if she hadn’t known for sure that Hill was biological she would have figured her for an android. “You have gotten into Fury’s favors. Not an easy thing to do.”

“I still don’t know what I did any differently that made all this happen.”

Maria still had her hand on Natasha’s shoulder and the redhead was still trying to figure out what in the world that gesture even meant.

“Maybe he just got tired of you not doing anything to advance your future.” She said blankly, taking her hand away.

She didn’t know if that was a compliment or a straight up insult but she gave an uncomfortable smile either way, “Thanks?”

Maria took it, “We have a lot of work to do, I want to see you here in two hours. I think that we'll work well together.”

Natasha nodded (Was that flirting?) and walked away slowly, still in a daze because everything seemed to be happening so fast and she had no idea what it all meant. She walked through the ship, her stomach growling and her head slightly dizzy, she wondered if she should go to the doctor, maybe she picked something up in those sewers.

The redhead stopped suddenly in the corridor and tilted her head, her eyebrow furrowing in confusion, something was coming through the walls. Drums? It was muffled but she could hear it and upon further inspection she knew that she was next to the auxillary conduit and she wondered why anybody would be working in there.

She opened a panel and then climbed up behind the wall, when she reached the first level and her head peaked over the top of the ladder her eyes widened. There was a woman sitting, leaning really, on one of the auxillary generators. She had music in her ears and it was blaring loud enouth that anybody in the general area would be able to hear it. 

Natasha stopped and stared at the stranger for a moment, She was beautiful, that was certain and even with her eyes shut she had a certain life about her, a life that seemed to surround her being. She had long brown hair that tumbled around her shoulders and chest. Natasha was definitely sure that this girl had not been here before, she wasn't someone she would have missed or forgotton. 

Natasha took a few more steps up and stepped into the cove. Apparently the vibrations alerted the stranger and her eyes shot open and she ripped her head phones out of her ears with a pop. 

"I-- I uh- I just wanted some privacy!" She lied, putting her hands up in front of her as the redhead took another step forward. 

"What the hell are you doing here?" Natasha interrogated. The stowaway stood up and Nat raised an eyebrow, "And don't try to run. We'll catch you."

"I--" She seemed at a loss for words, "I didn't think anyone would find me here." She admitted.

"They probaby wouldn't have until the next scan except for your music."

Darcy grimaced, "What are you going to do with me? I just needed a ride, surely that can't be that bad?"

Natasha thought about it for a moment, in a crisis like this there was a good chance that they would kill the stowaway. If anyone but Natasha woyld have found her she would be halfway to Fury's quarters by now. 

The woman was looking at her with big watery eyes and Natasha was momentarily reminded of a scared kitten which didn't help her situation. She had been a stowaway once before and someone had shown her kindness, maybe this was her chance to give it forward. Although Fury would be furious if he knew what she was doing.

She sighed, "You can come with me, hide in my room." Darcy let out a breath of air that she had been holding. "But--" Natasha raised a finger, "You're getting off the next time we land, understood?"

The stowaway nodded, "Understood."

"Now, give me your hands, I'm going to handcuff you until we get there so no one will snitch on us." Darcy oblidged immedietly. 

Natasha made her way swiftly to her own quarters, and the stowaway stumbled unbalanced next to her as fast as she could given the circumstances. They passed several crew members on their way but Natasha just kept her head down and The brunette followed suit.

She spoke only when they had walked into the redhead’s quarters, “Oh my God, thank you so so much!” She cried when the door shut behind them.

Natasha gave her a blank look and then unlocked her handcuffs, “Don’t make me regret helping you, alright?”

“No! No, of course not, it will be like I was never here.” She assured. 

Natasha frowned, “It better be. I’ve got better things to do than babysit some stowaway.”

“Of course.”

“And I wasn’t lying back there, the next time we stop you’re off.” She made a get out gesture and the woman continued to nod attentively.

“Thank you so much.” She repeated again.

“You don’t have to keep thanking me, okay? I just hate to see you get jetted into space or something, plus they always make a big deal out of it and it annoys me. Loud ass pirates- I just wanted to get some fucking sleep tonight, yeah? This has nothing to do with you. Now, make a place for yourself and remember that someone will probably kill you if you leave my room. So don’t.

“Jesus, what kind of transport do you carry?” She asked with a nervous giggle.

Natasha raised an eyebrow, “This isn’t a cargo ship. This is The Righteous Man. It’s a pirate ship captained by Nicolas Fury.”

The blood drained out of the stowaway’s face and her eyes went wide, “Oh, no, you’re kidding me…” She put two hands on her forehead and turned around, “You mean, you guys could really kill me?”

“Yes, what were you expecting when you snuck onto a warclass vessel? A slap on the wrist?”

The girl looked genuinely afraid now and that made Natasha feel slightly guilty, “I don’t know what I was expecting. I just wanted to get away, you know, I didn’t want to be trapped there anymore.” She sniffled, “But Now I’m in worse shape than I was.”

She looked like she was about to burst into tears, which was the last thing that Natasha needed right now. Natasha gave her a stiff and awkward pat on the shoulder, still standing two feet away from the brunette. “There. There.” She said uncomfortably.

Then she thought about what she had just said, “Trapped? Why were you trapped there?”

She sniffled, “The Pacis nationalists, they took me when they over threw our city.”

Natasha’s eyebrow raised, “Your city?”

Suddenly the brunette wiped her hair away from her face, “I’m sorry, I never introduced myself, I’m princess DarcemKanequinama.”

The redhead nearly choked on her own breath, “Excuse me?”

“But you can call me Darcy.” She said with a sweet smile, “What’s your name?”

“Princess, really? Like the runaway that ruined our heist?” She asked, now sounding angrier.

“Well, I mean, I guess the guards and the alarms would make it kinda hard to—“

Natasha threw her arms up and walked away, “This is just great, Nat, you might as well throw yourself into the void now.” She plopped down on one of her chairs and dropped her face in her hands, a scattering of materials clattering to the floor.

Everything was silent for a few moments until Darcy took a shy step forward, “Your name is Nat then?”

Natasha looked up at the innocent brunette and sighed, with a little nod of her head. “Yeah, It’s Natasha. Not like it matters ‘cause Fury’s going to kill me when he finds out that I’m hiding an escaped princess in the middle of my first mission.” She said dryly.

Darcy smiled, ignoring the pirates rant, “Natasha. That’s a really pretty name.”

The redhead groaned and dropped her head to the top of the table then proceeded to bounce it continuously on the hard metal surface.


	4. Not just another Follower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy has settled into life stuck in Natasha's quarters. Natasha gets a surprise guest and she makes a decision that may change the rest of her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter's a day late! I had to work late yesterday but i should be back on track by Tuesday :) Thanks for reading and commenting! It all means so much to me! :D

“Again with the music?” Natasha looked over from her table where she was currently scrolling through live streaming footage of various places. They had been on the hunt for the mysterious thief for almost three days now and Natasha, being the lowest ranking had to do the tedious and boring work.

Darcy was currently laying on her back with her headphones in and listening to some lightly rhythmic song and tapping her foot along to the music. She glanced over and pulled one of them out of her ears.

“What?” She asked.

Natasha shook her head, “You and that music, again?” Her work was boring and the computer would alert her if something was caught, she might as well bide her time.

“Oh, come on, everyone likes music.” Darcy said skeptically, sitting up on the bed and watching the redhead closely.

“I like music alright, but I don’t feel the need to have them rupturing my eardrums every time I have a moment of peace.”

“Pacis ears are a little stronger than yours. Besides, it calms me down.”

“It seems like you’re already calm enough given the circumstances.” Natasha turned around in her chair to face the stowaway.

“See—“ Darcy said gesturing to her ears, “Music. You should try it, it would probably help you relax a little.”

Natasha scoffed, “I’m plenty relaxed.” 

Darcy laughed at that, “What?”

“You are the least relaxed person I know, and I know general Matakahn personally.”

“That is not true at all, I have to be relaxed, have you seen my job? Just by doing this work I already have 3 that have decided to blow up and I give it another three hours before one of the androids does something to hurt themselves.” She explained.

“See!” Darcy bounced slightly on the bed, “That’s the opposite of fun! What do you even do for fun around here?”

“We have a bar, I go and drink a lot.”

“With?” Darcy urged a little frustrated scrunch in her nose.

“”With” What?”

“What’s the point of drinking alone? That’s the opposite of fun!” Darcy fell back on the bed as if she felt bad for the other woman’s situation.

Natasha rolled her eyes, “You know, I’m beginning to think you and I have wildly different views on life.” She said with a smirk.

“You think?”

Natasha laughed but she stopped short with the small buzzer sound that rang through the room. Someone wanted to come inside. She jumped up; more pieces of bots fell on the floor. “Someone’s here! Hide!” She whispered forcefully.

Darcy rolled off the bed and slid underneath it as the buzzer was hit again and Natasha moved to the middle of the floor, attempting (but failing) to look natural.

“Come in.” She said, her voice cracking slightly.

The door slid open and Commander Hill took a step inside, looking around at the dirty quarters curiously.

Natasha prayed that she wouldn’t notice the presence of another person through the mess, “What can I do for you, Commander Hill.”

Hill looked up, “ I came to check in on your progress.” She glanced at the live video footage playing through over and over again.

Romanov took a step back and gestured lightly to the screen, “I’ve been going through all of their hotspots and nothing out of the ordinary has been happening. I’m afraid it’s a dead end, at least with Murdock.”

Hill nodded, “We have come across the same problems with America, not only are we having problems finding her but we haven’t found any other activity on her part for the past month, so unfortunately we can’t cross her off the list.”

Natasha nodded, “I am almost finished with Murdock’s places of residence and then I’ll start on Gamora.”

“That should be easy considering her style.” Hill mentioned more in passing.

“What do you mean?”

“Gamora has a reputation for being very open about her criminal activity, if you remember the time she hung one of the dukes of Oh’Nah by their own flag in the middle of the city then you’ll understand her general M.O.”

“Damn.” Natasha’s eyes widened as she imagined that scene.

“Yeah, she’s great at doing what the rest of us want to do but don’t for the sake of safety and profit. Which is why we think she might be apart of this; Intentially fucking over Fury just for the thrill of it.”

“That makes sense, she’s definitely brash. I’ll begin investigating her cohorts immediately.”

Hill nodded and turned to leave but just as Natasha was convinced the danger was over the commander turned around, “That was one of the reasons that I came over here, the other reason was to ask you if you would like to have a drink with me sometime?”

Natasha’s face flushed, “I--, I mean, of course I would, commander.”

Hill gave a quick smile, “Wonderful, today?”

“Sound’s perfect.”

Hill made to turn around and looked back just as she was about to exit the door, “And you can call me Maria, at least off the clock.”

“Sounds perfect, Maria.”

The commander nodded curtly and then left, the door slid closed behind her and Natasha let out a long breath. She jumped slightly when Darcy slid out from underneath the bed and looked up at her from the floor. 

"Aww, someone's got a date!"

"She probably just wants to go over the mission together over some food." The redhead sat down and glanced at the brunette currently lying on her floor. 

"Yeah, no one believes that." Darcy sat up on the side of the bed and then gave the other woman a gentle punch on the shoulder, "But, hey, she's cool, right?"

Natasha couldn't help the small smirk over her features, "Yeah, she's cool. She's an amazing strategist and she's powerful and honest."

Darcy glanced down at the floor, "Well, that's good then, yeah?"

The mechanic gave the other woman a quick look, "Sure, but my personal life is none of your business, stowaway."

"Right--" Darcy grinned, "So what about your work life? What are you guys even working on? I didn't know pirate work was so technical, I thought you guys just pillaged and drank and sang old folk songs."

Natasha laughed, "Well, maybe some of them but no, we're looking for possible candidates as to who exactly stole our item out from under us." She pulled up the photos and the profiles. 

Darcy leaned forward to get a better look at them, "Ooh, neat, pirates wars. What are you guys going to do with the unlucky bastard who took your stuff?"

Natasha shrugged, "That's for Fury to decide and us to carry out."

"So who are they?" The princess pointed to the holograms. 

Natasha pulled up one photo and turned to it, "Well, this is Mathew Murdock, he's heavy hitter in this part of the universe, he's a treasure hunter and part time vigilante. He doesn't usually get in our way, but when he does, he always goes big."

She pulled up the next photo, "This is Gamora--"

"Just Gamora?"

"Yeah, she's only got one name. Anyway she's a feisty and ballsy thief; she likes to go after items that prove hard systems weak. We don't even think she needs any of this stuff, she just does it to give some of the bigger empires a middle finger."

"Ooh, I like her already." Darcy smiled, she had her knees up and her chin resting in her palms as she listened to Natasha explaining the criminals.

"Yeah, and here's Wanda Maximoff." She pulled up a photo of a red haired woman with a dangerous look in her eye. "She's the ultimate vigilante in this part of the solar system. She equalizes the wealth, so to speak. She comes, she goes, and she unapologetically crumples anyone who stands in her way. Also, she's the reason for the rescue of the two thousand mine workers on Mars. As swift and easy as this hit was, this could have easily been her."

Darcy nodded, "And that woman?" She pointed to the photo of the woman with neat hair and dark lipstick. 

"Peggy Carter. We've eliminated her so far; She used to work exclusively in the Milkyway and Andromeda galaxies but recently she's been spotted in the Oh'Nahn galaxy and so far she hasn't moved. We don't know why."

"Yeah, but what's she like?"

Natasha thought about it, "She's ex-military and has fought in two different separate wars, she became a soldier for hire and she's been know to go after valuable pieces in the past. She's organized, logical, and is said to one of the most brutal fighters this side of the universe. If she's aligned herself with the Tah'Rehn rebels then they have a much better chance of success."

Darcy's eyes were wide and she was looking at Natasha as if she was telling the most interesting fairy tale in the world. "And the young one?"

"This is--"

There were four consecutive buzzes at her door. She jumped and shooed the princess back underneath the bed. Natasha kicked a few pieces of metal on the edge to help cover her up. 

The buzzer continued to be pushed, "Yeah, what is it?" Natasha asked, slightly annoyed. 

Jack practically fell into her room, out of breath and wide eyed. The redhead stood up, "Jack, what's wrong?"

They put a finger up, still breathing heavily, "Nat, I have something to tell you--"

"Out with it."

"I think Hill's going to ask you out today." They practically spat out. 

Natasha's shoulders fell and she shook her head, "You're late, jack, she's already been over here."

Jack looked at her, "For real? Damnit, I wanted to warn you.."

"It's alright, I handled myself."

"Well, did you say yes?" They urged. 

"Of course I did. Wouldn't you?" Natasha crossed her arms and sat back down. 

"Probably yeah.. Congratulations then!"

Natasha ignored them, "How’s your searching going?"

They paced the room in a circle, "Awful, shitty, you know, completely unhelpful. I can't figure out for the life of me who would have the opportunity--" They began to number off on their fingers, "The ability, the tech, the knowledge, or be foolish enough to steal The Anima key out from underneath Nick."

Natasha raised an eyebrow, "Nick?"

"Yeah, Fury, Nick Fury, Captain Nicolas J. Fury. I gotta go, failing takes a lot of time and there isn't that many breaks." Then they added with a chuckle, "Did you hear that Pua accidentally punched herself in the face today while working."

She tilted her head with a smirk, "No, I heard that was you."

They paused then put a ginger hand onto their forehead, "So it was.. I gotta go Romanov."

Then they walked out the door as Natasha shook her head, she was really quiet fond of that loopy engineer. Darcy slid back out, "The Anima key? Is that what you're looking for?"

"Yeah, it's supposed to unlock the chamber where the Anima stone is being kept, or something like that. Some stone that can bring the dead back to life or something like that, anyway, it's going to be worth a fortune and an amazing trophy for any criminal."

Darcy's eyes widened and she looked toward the floor, "Anima.. You don't mean the Soul stone, do you?"

Natasha looked at her curiously, "It's called that also, yes. Why?"

"The key to the soul stone is what you're looking for?" Darcy turned away and covered her mouth."Shit.. Shit... Oh shit.."

Natasha stood up, "Darcy what's wrong?"

The princess looked toward the ceiling, it took her a few moments to speak and when she did, her voice was higher than usual, "I may... Have--" Then she added in fast and barely audible words, "Stole the key, please don't kill me."

"What." The pirate asked in a low and dangerous voice. 

"I didn't know that someone else was trying to steal it!"

The redhead took a step forward and held a hand out, practically snarling at the brunette on the bed, "Give it to me." She ordered. 

At this Darcy shook her head and turned away from the pirate, "No, I need it. Okay? It's my only chance." 

"Give me the goddamn key, Princess." 

Darcy rolled around her and got back on her feet to face the pirate at eye level, "And what are you going to tell them?" She gestured to outside the door, "They're going to kill you if they think that you've been holding out and their going to kill both of us if they find out about you stowing me away. You can have it later, but i have got to keep it right now. Until I find where the stone is hidden." The brunette stood up tall and held her ground against the slightly shorter redhead. 

Natasha kicked one of her work benches in response and despite her attempts to stay quiet, her voice raised, "How did you even get it?! That thing was the most guarded item on your entire planet!"

"They wouldn't let me go anywhere, I've been cracking that thing open slowly for the past five months. I got it the night that I escaped and the only way to get it is to kill me." She held the item close to her stomach and stood back. 

Natasha huffed loudly and drew a knife, putting it to the princess's throat, Darcy squeaked but she closed her eyes and didn't move. When she opened her eyes Natasha was still holding the knife to her neck and breathing heavily. 

"You can't kill me." The brunette stated, taking a step back from the angry pirate. "A pirate who can't kill someone, I guess I got lucky again."

"Natasha pointed to the air with the knife, "You're a bigger pain in the ass than I could have ever imagined."

Darcy actually laughed, "You're not the first person to tell me that."

The intercom beeped, "Romanov, are you ready to eat?" Hill's voice came through and both the women looked up on instinct.

Natasha hit her button and said in a voice filled with fake calm and sweetness, "I'll meet you there. Maria."

It clicked off and the pirate glared at the princess, "This isn't over." She stated just before she turned off the holograms and stomped past the other woman. 

Darcy glanced behind her, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to go eat some fucking food. I'll deal with you later." Then she left the room in a huff.

As she moved down the hallway after making sure that her door was locked so that no one could go in or get out, she felt a pang of guilt through her chest. She felt for this woman, which was why she didn't kill her right then and there. At least that's what she told herself, she had never killed anyone and the idea of it made her want to curl up and hide. 

She decided that she would figure out a way that everyone would be happy when she was done with this meal. She would tie up the princess, take the key and lie to Fury, maybe telling him that she found and killed a stowaway with the key. She would sneak Darcy off on at the next dock and she would be able to go on with her life. 

She nodded to herself with a little smile that was a good idea. 

When she arrived at the bar Maria was already seated and she looked up as the red head walked up. She stood up and nodded politely, sitting down with her. They ordered some food, and Maria shooed as she grinned and made some insinuating remarks. 

"I think that I should clarify why I asked you to join me today." Maria said, pushing her drink to the side and placing her hands on the table. 

"I am from the planet 889 in the 6th sector of the Andromeda Galaxy, if you didn't already know."

Natasha nodded and raised an eyebrow, "A very logical people. They are also enhanced with technology. Cyborgs almost." She examined. 

"Exactly. So, in the spirit of cultural exchanges, would it be appropriate for me to tell you why I wanted you to join me?"

"I would prefer it."

Maria smiled and Natasha couldn't help but feel slightly affectionate to her commander since it seemed like she had a hard shell but a sweet and awkward side as well. 

"I think that you waste your potential everyday on this ship and the fact that you have never attempted to stand on your own, for whatever reason is saddening to say the least." Natasha made a face and Maria continued as if she didn't see it. "But I think you're attractive and you seem to have a kind heart, I admire that in you. This mission was the first opportunity that I have had to engage you and I am thankful for that."

"So, is this courtship?" Natasha asked her heart beating a little faster just from saying the words. 

"Yes." 

"Casual or serious?"

"I believe that the best course of action would be to remain casual and then determine whether or not we are compatible for a long term commitment."

Natasha smiled. 

"What?"

The redhead took a sip of her drink, "I was just thinking how easy this seemed, no mystery just honesty. I like it." 

As much as she was enjoying this exchange, her mind was being constantly nagged by the thoughts of Darcy and that key. This was a possible dream come true, Maria was dependable and loyal and as pretty as she could be, Natasha was definitely looking forward to this relationship. 

They ate and talked for nearly two hours about a variety of things, and Natasha had almost forgotten about her other responsibilities when an alarm went off and the entire bars stood up in a panic. Hill wasted no time in figuring out what was going on. She turned on her communicator.

"Fury. What's the situation?"

Fury's voice was quick and distracted, "Someone's sabotaged the engines. We're at a stand still."

Natasha felt like throwing up. Hill gave her a quick kiss on the cheek after asking permission and then left to return to her post by the captain's side. As soon as she was gone Natasha bolted out the other side of the door. 

She ran to her quarters first, and sure enough, the room was empty. After that she ran towards the shuttle dock at a sprint. Of course this would be happening to her right now, she honestly didn't expect anything different anymore. 

She flew through the ship and went a back way to the docked shuttles; everyone seemed to be flooding in the opposite direction. Something must have sent them to a different part of the ship. 

Before she could react to anything Darcy appeared in her field of vision, watching her closely. Natasha jumped down from her perch on one of the engineering entrances.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Darcy seemed to be in the middle of rewiring one of the shuttles and she looked over, only mildly concerned about Natasha's presence. "I'm getting out of here, Nat."

"Not with that key, you're not."

Darcy turned to face her as the ramp to one of the shuttles opened, "Why? So you can bring it to your captain and let him get the treasure? You're not a pirate; you're just another minion for some warlord." She looked around as the sounds of footsteps became noticeable in the hallway, she turned back to face the other woman, "Look, you can have the key, and the treasure just as soon as I get my stone, what are you going to do?"

Natasha practically growled and then kicked the ship a few times, "Fuck it." She said and then grabbed Darcy's wrist and pulled her into the cabin of the shuttle. 

The ramp was closed and Natasha immediately set a course on high speed to get them away from The Righteous Man. So far the pirate ship was not firing on them which she didn't know why; she was prepared to be dodging torpedoes at this point. Instead, the monitor at the front of the cabin beeped on and Natasha ducked. She was not ready to be caught dead betraying Nick Fury and his crew. 

“Whoever, you are, you better have a good goddamn reason for stealing one of my ships.” Fury’s voice was deadly and Natasha ducked down further away from the screen.

Darcy was next to her on the floor and she glanced up at her as they tried to ignore what Fury was saying. They would know as soon as they began to investigate that Natasha was the one who betrayed them and then stole the shuttle. As far as they would know, it was Natasha by herself.

Darcy grabbed a gun off of one of the racks that she could reach and she stood up, pulling Natasha with her, the pirate struggled against her and then stopped in confusion when the princess put the gun to her head.

On the screen, Fury’s eyes darkened and Hill moved forward with the slightest hint of concern on her face.

“Let us go or I’ll shoot her, I swear.” 

“Who the hell are you?” Fury demanded.

Darcy took a step forward, “I’m the girl who outsmarted you, that’s who and If I think for one second that you’re following us, I will shoot her.” She jostled the redhead slightly and she grunted angrily.

“What makes you think that we care?” Fury asked, obviously stalling for time.

“That’s not my problem, it’s hers. Now, if you’ll excuse us we’ll be off.”

Hill took a step closer to the screen, “You have made a grave mistake. You should not poke the monster here in the void, no one will ever know if you go missing.”

Natasha felt Darcy tensing up behind her but she remained silent and then turned the screen off. She let the other woman go and ran to sit at the controls.

“What the hell was that for?” Natasha asked, stepping up behind her.

“You’re name is cleared. You’re my hostage.” Darcy said, smiling up at the redhead proudly.

“No, you’re MY hostage.” Natasha corrected her and Darcy laughed as Natasha’s words bounced off of her.

The pirate sat down on the next chair and Darcy looked at her,” Now, if you want to kill me, you can.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow, “You’re putting a lot of trust into someone you barely know, princess, out here in the void, that’s not a good idea.”

“I’m running on a little faith here.”

“That may not be the best idea.”

“Maybe, but it’s my choice.” Darcy reaffirmed.

Natasha shrugged, “Yes it is, now what’s your brilliant plan now, princess?”

Darcy thought about it for a moment, “We need to find out where the stone is being held, it won’t be on public info so we need to figure out where to go next.”

“Hhmm..” Natasha glanced at her, feeling electrified fior the first time about the situation that she had gotten herself into, “A real, powerful stone that’s practically myth by now. I think I know someone who may be able to point us in the right direction. An old friend.”

She punched the coordinates into the ship, and Darcy watched her closely, “Earth’s moon?”

Natasha nodded, “Yeah, he likes to lay low. He’s—Uh—an interesting guy, knows a lot of people; really likes arrows.”


	5. Welcome to he Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha and Darcy get to the moon and experience the culture of what used to be a thriving town. Maria makes a choice despite what Fury wants her to do. And a mysterious bounty hunter is set loose, on the hunt for the missing princess, working for a counsel that wants her dead.

“So—this is the moon…?” Darcy stared down at the port they were currently descending upon.

“Yup.”

“It’s, uh—“

“Filthy, yeah.” Natasha finished her thought and then turned away from the rust bucket of a docking center.

From where they were they could see the sprawling and muggy city just to the east of the port. The old buildings were falling apart and sparse and despite the many roads that went in and out of the city, they didn’t help to make it look less like a slum.

The port they were landing in looked downright dangerous and it was easy to see where the dome had been patched again and again. There was one person waiting for them when they got out, an old man with a five o clock shadow and bored, droopy eyes.

Darcy, who, as far as Nat was concerned was a incredibly positive person and had been reading facts off about the beginnings of colonization of the earth’s moon, looked slightly taken aback by the state of the world that they were about to enter.

Natasha smirked over at the princess, “Yeah, the books don’t do it justice do they?”

“What happened to it?” Darcy looked wistful as she continued to watch out the window.

“It used to be a milestone. Now it’s barely even worth a visit.” The look of the moon didn’t really bother the pirate. They had been there many times as a lot of fugitives liked to gather here when they were running and when it came to off the wall items and information, this grease bucket was just the place to check.

“That’s… Sad.” Darcy’s usually perky face was pensive.

Natasha didn’t know why, but the face she was giving right now, the pouty lips and the slow blinks, she already hated it. It gave her a twinge of panic in her stomach and made her both irritated and guilty even though she had nothing to do with that face.

She looked over at the princess and handed her a secure bag and container, “Hey, cheer up, you want to know what else The Moon is famous for that the program didn’t mention?”

Darcy took the bag and took her eyes off the window and the dismal scene in front of them, “What?”

Natasha grinned, “The circus.”

 

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“And what exactly do you plan to do about this, Hill?” Captain Fury stood outside of Maria Hill’s quarters where she was putting things into an oval container.

She stood up, stopping what she was doing and thinking for a moment, “I believe that the best course of action would be to go after our crew member.”

Fury took another step inside and looked at his commander critically, a mixture of pity and admiration on his face. “You do understand that finding Romanov is not a priority. We have a goal and I plan to keep that in sight. I’m sorry that your new buddy got taken but shit happens, Hill and I need you focused.”

“With all due respect, Captain but that is exactly why I am going after her alone. I would not want to waste valuable time that could be used searching for the key. However, a personal sense of duty to that treasure is not going to keep me here. I see potential in Romanov and more importantly, I see what could become a very important ally in the future. A friend. I understand the consequences of my decision but I would not be doing this unless I felt a strong need to do so.”

She looked at him and then turned around, pulling a two handed gun out of a drawer and putting it neatly inside her travel capsule. Fury didn’t say anything as she pulled her belongings out and reorganized them inside the capsule.

A few minutes later Fury turned to leave, not arguing anymore with Hill, he glanced back at her before he exited the room, “I think this is a waste of time, you know that, but I trust you.”

Hill stood up tall to face him again, “Thank you, sir.”

“But that doesn’t mean they’ll be a place for you when you come back, at least not one you won’t have to fight for.”

Maria smiled lightly, “I didn’t expect any differently, Sir.”

“Good” Was all he said as he left her alone to finish her packing.

He face was calm and thoughtful as she pulled the capsule off the bed and made her way calmly through the ship until she ended up in the shuttle docks. She picked out a plain and easily overlooked shuttle and boarded.

The inside of the shuttle lit up as she entered and a smooth voice greeted her calmly, “Welcome, Maria . I did not think I would see you this soon. Unfortunate.”

“I believed the same, Isaura. But life has a way of changing our plans.”

“Poetic, where are you going to now?”

Hill sat down and clicked on a few sections of the control panel, “I’m looking for someone.”

“Oh, that’s different. Is this someone special?”

“I think so.” Maria said, her eyebrows furrowing slightly in a question.

“It’s not like you to be so unsure.”

Maria sighed, "Just get me on my way, Isaura. I've got things to do."

"Fair enough."

After that the AI didn't say anything else and the ramp was closed and they left the safety of the Righteous Man. 

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.

.

Darcy followed closely behind the redhead, clinging on tightly to her jacket as they weaved their way through the dome on Earth's moon. Natasha seemed to know where she was going but the general atmosphere of the place seemed to overwhelme the princess. 

It was crowded here, and damp for some reason, as if the weather controls had malfunctioned and no one bothered to fix it. The people gave them suspicious side glances and everyone kept their head down. 

There was a variety of people, from all over the universe but none of them seemed to be in good condition. Natasha had warned the princess when they entered the city that she should keep her head down and not look anyone in the eye but she ignored her and stared at everything. 

A disfigured person that Darcy had no idea where they came from moved away from one of the many leaning walls. They shouted something at the brunnette and she jumped back. Natasha grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward, ignoring the person who was still glaring at them. 

"Keep your eyes down." The pirate reminded her curtly.

This time Darcy listened to her and dropped her head, keeping her eyes on the hem of Natasha's coat. 

They kept moving at a quick pace until Darcy realized that the road beneath their feet began to improve slightly and when she looked up they were coming up on a large circular platform.

There was a gathering of people around it and Darcy felt like she wasn't in danger for the first time. The people were clapping at every other interval. The princess was led around the crowd until she could see the performer on the makeshift stage.

He was a average heighted man with messy blond hair and a band aid over the middle of his nose. He had a bow and arrow set on his back and at the moment he was grinning and juggling a purple fruit with black stripes.

"Have any of you lovely people ever tried a Frodagawan peach?" He was saying, the audience shook their heads and he began to throw the fruit higher in the air. 

Well, I wouldn't recommend it. Their taste can be quite--” He threw the fruit above the crowd and pulled his bow out, "Explosive." He shot a perfectly timed arrow at the target and he the peaches just above the crowd. As the arrow pierced the skin of the fruit it exploded into a shower of orange gunk and seeds. 

The crowd erupted into cheers and Darcy even laughed and clapped as the blond man bowed and grinned. He looked over his shoulder and whistled, "Hey, Lucky, you wanna get that for me?"

From underneath a table an old three legged dog hobbled out of it's bed and happily jumped off the small stage and picked up the arrow with practiced accuracy. On closer inspection it was easier to see that the dog was robotic and whirred loudly as it panted and brought the arrow back to his owner. 

Darcy clapped and awed loudly at the new entrance and she even frowned when she realized that the show was over and the blond man was bowing and laughing as people threw varying amounts of money into a hat in front of the stage.

Natasha gestured her head to where he was and it clicked for the princess, “I thought you were just taking me here to see this.” She said with a wink.

Natasha shook her head and then began to move through the crowd, holding onto the other woman’s wrist. When they made it to the front where the man was standing, his back now turned to the crowd that was shuffling away in different directions.

Natasha poked his shoulder. He didn’t look back but he acknowledged her presence, “How much do you want?” He asked in a low but casual tone.

The pirate sighed, “I’m not here for drugs, idiot.”

He stopped what he was doing and turned his head, a second later his face broke out in a huge grin and he began shooing the people that were around him. “Nat!” He cried and embraced her stiff form.

He patted her arm and looked her over, “You’re looking good, how’re you doing? I didn’t know ol’ Fury was coming here or I would have met you when you got here!” He seemed genuinely excited although he still hadn’t noticed Darcy standing behind the pirate.

“It’s good to see you too, Clint.” Natasha responded in a much calmer and dryer tone, “But I’m not here with Fury.”

He looked confused and for the first time he glanced to Darcy, “What do you mean?”

Natasha moved a little closer, “I’m here for personal reasons. I need your help.”

He glanced around them now, as if looking for anybody who could be following them but he didn’t question any further and instead he gestured for them to follow him. They didn’t say anything else but Natasha tugged lightly on Darcy’s wrist and they stayed about four feet behind Clint.

“You brought us to a drug dealer?” Darcy asked incredulously.

“He’s got contacts.” Is all that the pirate said rather than making an excuse, “Trust me, he’s a professional.”

The blond tripped on an old food can and nearly fell into a wall causing everyone standing at the wall to protest angrily and he put his hands up and went back to his original path.

“Mostly.” Natasha fixed.

He led them to an apartment at the corner of the bad neighborhood, the door didn’t seem to be locked and he pushed his way inside. He held his arms out proudly, gesturing to the horrible mess that was everywhere in the small flat. Dishes were piled up and he had clothes in random piles around the place. “Welcome to my HQ.”

Darcy turned to leave at that moment and Natasha stopped her, “Give him a chance.”  
Darcy sighed but turned back. Natasha looked down as Lucky brushed past her feet and she bent down to talk to the robotic dog. He wiggled and whined as she patted him and asked him rhetoric questions.

“So—“ Clint began, “What the hell is going on?”

Natasha glanced back at the brunette, “Clint, this is Princess Darcekanequinama.” She looked at the princess, “Darcy, this is Clint Barton. Local circus clown of the moon.”

 

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“How important to you is it that she is brought back alive?” The masked man on the screen addressed a political figure, which was on the currently winning side of the civil war.

The woman on the other side wore traditional elder garments of the Pacis people and had a long and drawn face. She looked tired and she looked slightly disgusted.

“I would prefer alive.” She stated coldly.

“What does the counsel say? I work for them, not you.”

The woman’s jawline tightened and she looked away from the screen, the masked man, which was normal attire for a bounty hunter, especially one all the way from Oh’Nah, didn’t look away from her.

“The counsel would prefer her dead. But make it look like an accident. She may be rogue but she’s still a figure of inspiration to the people.”

“I am not here to keep the people happy. The counsel wants her dead and she is going to die.”

The woman looked sick as he spoke, “Please, I will pay extra if she is brought in alive.”

“What makes you think they’ll let you live long enough to uphold that promise? Your niece knew what she was doing when she abandoned her people. She’ll face the consequences.”

The screen went black and the woman sat down shakily on a chair, from the outside of the chambers she could hear the angry yells of the counsel and the rioting people outside the building.

She bowed her head and let herself cry for the first time since this petty war split apart her family, and her life. Darcy was so young and yet so full of life and anger and passion. She reminded her so much of when she was young, she hoped that she would live long enough to see the princess’s return. Her nieces return.

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“Oh. My. God. Yes!” Darcy grinned to herself and walked over to the green decorated bowl on Clint’s counter. Inside it had a small pile of small round chocolates, it had been ages since the princess had had any candy and as stressed as she was it was all that she wanted.

She had tried to ask the replicator on the shuttle if it could make her some but that’s when they learned that the shuttle’s AI was, in fact, very angry about being stolen and proceeded to surse and yell at her until they turned the extra processors back off.

In the other room Natasha was telling Clint everything that had happened, he was a nice enough guy and he even showed her around and let her take a bath. But when she imagined this adventure she didn’t exactly imagine staying with a pirate’s drug dealing friend.

But, hey, at least he had some sweets lying around.  
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“So.. You’re harboring an escaped princess and helping her find some magical stone—That she has not told you why she wants— And you need help finding this thing because apparently it’s a myth?” Clint leaned forward and clarified everything that the pirate had told him.

She nodded, Lucky laid happily in her lap, his head over her arm and his tail wagging every time she shifted. “Yes.”

He raised an eyebrow.

She sighed, “Oh come on, this can’t be the strangest thing that’s come to your doorstep.”

He thought about it. “Maybe not, but it is extremely worrying when it comes to you.”

She sat back and he went on, “I mean, come on, do you even know anything about this girl. You said she never told you her circumstances. That’s not a good sign.”

“Don’t act like my mother Clint, you’ve met her, do you really think she’s going to kill me when we get there?”

“No—I just—“

“That was some weird ass candy…” Darcy walked in slowly to the living area and sat down on a chair, her eyes were distant and unfocused. Clint and Natasha glanced at each other.

“Candy? What candy? I don’t have any candy.”

Darcy looked like she was about to pass out but she was smiling really strangely, “Really..” She pointed to the kitchen, “But you had all those little chocolates on the counter..” She began to giggle and she fell over on the arm of the chair.

Natasha gave Clint a deadly look, “What the hell, Barton?”

He threw his hands up and ran into the kitchen; he came back with a half empty bowl of little brown chocolate covered “Product.” His face twisted and he held out the bowl for the pirate to see.

She stood up and knelt down to where Darcy was leaning over sideways and giggling loudly at nothing. “Goddammit, Clint, you drugged my princess!”

“I didn’t mean to!”

She groaned and moved the hair out of the princess’s face, watching her with an extremely worried expression on her face. “You just left it out there like a damn party favor?”

“Well, excuse me for not cleaning up before you and miss naïve showed up on my doorstep.” He put the bowl down and moved next to Natasha.

The pirate cursed loudly which caused another fit of giggles from the brunette, “I think she’s overdosed, Clint. We need to take her to the hospital.”

“Right. A hospital for some girl who got to many drugs. On the moon. Think about what you’re saying, Nat.”

“Well, help me out here!”

“Okay.. Okay..” Clint looked around, “We need to get her into bed and keep her hydrated. She didn’t really eat all that many, she’s probably fine.” He said struggling to keep optimistic.

“Keep her hydrated? That’s your plan?”

“Well, it’s something! It’ll wear off eventually; we just need to keep her safe until then.” He cringed looking at the giggling woman, “She’s about to have a really bad trip.”

Natasha glared at him but helped him moved her noodly form out of the chair and into the bedroom. Clint moved some of the piles of random stuff out of the way and Natasha moved her into the bed, covering her up and pulling a blanket over her wiggling body.

Lucky whined and jumped on the bed, worried about the sick woman he curled up next to her and laid his head on the princess’s hip protectively.

“Nooo! Co’mere.” Darcy reached out for the pirate, gripping onto her wrist and pulling her down. Natasha struggled slightly but gave in with a look from Clint and ended up on top of the covers, on her side, facing the princess who had not closed her eyes once since she laid down.

“I’m going to go get some water, keep her calm.” Clint left the room.

Darcy’s face went from a giggling mess to a crying mess before Natasha even knew what was happening. She scrunched up her face and began to sob. This was not something Natasha even knew how to handle.

She put a tentative hand on the girl’s shoulder, “Hey, it’s okay. This’ll all be over soon.”

Darcy shook her head, “That’s not it.” She said through sniffling tears.

“What is it then?” Natasha asked, more trying to keep her busy than actually listening to what she was saying. She heard a crash from the kitchen and immediately decided that Clint wasn’t going to be any help at all.

“I’m gonna die!” Darcy cried before bursting into another fit of tears.

“No, come on, you’re not going to die. You ingested some drugs, that’s all. It’s Clint’s fault, he’s an idiot sometimes. I'll punch him in the morning for you, okay? Will that make you feel better?”

The princess shook her head, “No, I’m going to die. I’m broken. My soul is broken!

“What are you talking about?”

Darcy struggled through hiccupping breaths, she opened her eyes however and she began to calm down, staring sadly into Natasha’s green eyes. “Pacis. We’re immortal.”

Natasha nodded, “Yeah, I knew that.”

“I’m not. They broke me and now I’m gonna die.” She began sobbing again, this time Natasha opened her arms and let the princess curl up next to her, crying and saying random words.

The pirate’s eyes opened wide in shock, was that why she wanted to get to the stone so badly? She tried to coax out more information from the woman but she was completely out of it and it was hard enough getting her to drink water, much less explain any of her high ramblings.

Natasha, still really annoyed with Clint made him leave and ended up spending the rest of the night with Darcy curled up in her arms alternating between crying, laughing, and shouting angrily.

It was definitely one of the worst nights that Natasha had ever had, and she had been there when another pirate found away to screw up the entire ship, sending the bots and the androids into murderous rages all over the ship.

She wanted, more than anything, answers, but there was no way to get them until her sickness passed so she held onto the princess protectively and waited patiently for the night to end. She kept a hand on Lucky’s head, grateful that the dog was there to keep her company through everything.

In the morning, she was going to get some answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lucky, the three legged dog of Clint's is courtesy of Lost_Lovegood :) I just couldn't turn down that idea :)


	6. Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy heals from her mishap with Clint's "Product" and her and Natasha have a heart to heart. A certain young vigilante becomes apart of the hunt and a surprise guest changes the plan a little.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't post last thursday because it was thr holidays and I was just so busy lol But I should be back on the clock now :) Sorry for the length between chapters!

"I hate your friend.." Darcy bent over the toilet and continued to retch into the bowl while Natasha held her hair back and patted her shoulders as she gagged and vomited over again. 

 

"I don't even blame you."

There was no response just more dry heaving into the toilet and the redhead cringed. She looked back as she felt someone in the doorway; Clint was staring uncomfortably at them from the hallway. She glared at him and he put his hands up and backed away. 

Darcy attempted to stand up and Natasha helped her, holding underneath her arms, watching her worried. The princess put her hand up, "I'm good, thank you."

Natasha took her hands off the brunette and took a step away to give her room. The princess took a stuttering breath and closed her eyes, getting more comfortable on her feet again. 

She sighed and for a moment Natasha thought that she was starting to feel better, until she doubled over again and began retching all over again. Natasha exhaled and dropped down next to the princess and pulled her gorgeous lochs away from her face. It was at least an hour later until Darcy felt comfortable enough to leave the toilet and let herself be taken back to the bed. She clung possessively onto Natasha's arms until the redhead put her on the bed and checked her stats and temperature. 

Natasha looked concerned as she read the reading on the device; she glanced up, "What is the average temperature of your people?" 

Darcy had her head in her palm, rubbing her face lightly, "It's like 104 degrees." She said dully. 

Natasha breathed a sigh of relief, "That's good, you only have a small fever."

The princess didn't respond and Natasha sat down sideways on the bed, watching her critically. She was about to open her mouth to speak when Darcy said in a whiny voice, "I'm hungry."

The pirate leaned back. "You're in luck." Came Clint's voice from the doorway, he was holding a tray that had some sort of steaming drink and some food of various kinds.

Natasha seemed to debate something for a moment but then she decided against speaking and stood up to let Clint place the tray on the princess’s lap. She smiled lightly as she saw the food in front of her. 

"There's that smile." Clint said, watching her take a bite out of the noodly substance. 

She looked up, "I'm still mad at you."

"Fair enough. Natasha?" He turned to face the redhead, "I got some of the information you wanted."

She nodded, "We'll be right back."

The princess nodded absently as they left the room. Clint led her to the kitchen where he had a handheld ready for her to read through documents. He gave it to her and went around the counter, taking a big gulp out of the coffee pot without pouring it into the cup. 

Natasha glanced up, "I don't want any coffee, thank you."

He didn't respond and only took another big swig of his precious coffee. Natasha moved quickly through the documents. "This isn't anything, what is this?" 

Clint grabbed the handheld and glanced through the documents, "Oops, that's my reading material. Nevermind." He changed something and then handed it back to the pirate. "Here you go."

"Turns out Fury wasn't the only one going after the stone. The information your looking for should be with this guy."

Natasha's face scrunched her face up, "Nelson? I've never heard of him."

"Look at who he's affiliated with."

Clint leaned over the counter to get a better look. She swiped at something, "Fury was right. Murdock. But why should I give a shit about this Nelson?"

"Foggy Nelson's been Murdock's right hand man for years, the reason why he's important is that the Daredevil is nearly impossible to find and of all your options they would be the best."

"Why?"

"Because Murdock's stationary right now. It's probably the reason why he wasn't there when you guys went after the key, Foggy was arrested a few weeks ago and I know for a fact that Murdock's not going to leave him in there."

"Yeah, arrested and put into a Venus prison."

She continued to read through the documents while Clint nodded. "This isn't terrible." She said grinning, "Well, we know where we have to go next."

"And you better hurry, If I know Mathew Murdock, Foggy isn't going to be in that prison for long."

Natasha raised a skeptical eyebrow, "You know The Daredevil?"

"I mean, theoretically. From a creepy distance."

She chuckled and put the handheld down, looking towards the bedroom, "Before we do that, I need to get some answers." 

"Yeah I think that would be a good idea."

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"Hey MAC! What are you doing?" A small pink creature that was about the size of a Pomeranian and had a body that resembled a bipedal marsupial. She had big, bat like ears with thick fuzz coming out of them and little arms and hands. She wore what looked like overalls except they were designed to fit her body comfortably.

She hopped quickly to a young girl crouching next to a large round door with a combination pad in front of her face. The pad was taken off and a tangle of wires were falling out of the square. 

America Chavez worked diligently with a tiny pair of tools, not even looking back as her friend came up behind her and leaned over to get a better look. 

Miss America was young but her eyes were fierce and dedicated even as she slumped forward while she worked. Her clothes were casual with rolled up pants and sleeves over a star studded button up shirt. 

"Just practicin' Clava."

Clava looked around at the disembodied practice vault and shook her head, her ears swinging lightly as her head moved.

"You've been at it for four hours, why don't you take a break."

America pulled out a red wire and raised an eyebrow, "Gotta keep practicing, when we're doing this and there's a city's guard outside with guns just waiting to shoot us down, I need to know exactly what I'm doing."

Clava hopped expertly on the girl's shoulder and gazed down at the realistic puzzle she was working on. "You know you know what you're doing, the youngest vigilante in the galaxy, what you need is a break. "

America chuckled and snipped a wire in half, the fake vault beeped and swung open. She grinned, and watched as it shut down and opened to the other side of the room. 

"Yeah, A break would be cool but do you know what would be even better?"

Clava's nose twitched, "What?"

"This." America stood up, balancing her partner on her shoulder expertly and jogging swiftly to one of her work tables.

They were inside of a large warehouse and the entire expanse was covered with various projects and loot from projects that were already finished. 

She leaned over and let Clava jump down onto the table's surface, The small alien gazed upwards as a hologram appeared above her head. A sketched out diagram of an artifact that had just recently become a topic of interest for many powerful parties. America wasted no time in explaining the Anima stone's story to Clava. 

"So basically, there is practically nothing solid known about it's whereabouts but that's all about to change and I know where to start." America grinned and spun the hologram in the air proudly. 

Clava sighed, "It probably doesn't even have powers, you know how these things are exagerated through the years."

"I don't care if it's plastic; I want to be the one to find it."

Clava thought about it for a few moments and then exhaled, her thin tail whipping in the air absently, "Where are we going?"

America gave a proud toothy grin, "I hope you brought your swim trunks, Clavs' 'Cause we're going to Venus."

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.

.

"I've trusted you this far but I'm going to need some answers before we go any farther." Natasha was sitting on Clint's couch watching the princess sip nervously from a coffee mug filled with some kind of tea that Clint swore would help her with the nausia. 

"And you deserve some." Darcy took another sip and then put the cup down, keeping a hand on the edge of the container.

"Last night, you said you were dying. Is that true or was that just some drug induced delirium?"

"Okay, here's the thing--" Darcy began, "You know that Pacian's are immortal right?"

Natasha nodded. 

"The reason why is that we're not born--" She thought for a moment, "We're not born as infants like you, we wake up as adults with all basic needed knowledge to survive. The reason why we're immortal is because of an ancient process where we artificially..." 

She made some hand movements that looked like she was unscrewing a large bolt, "Fix the soul-- I guess you would call it that... It's complicated--" She waved the rest of her explanation,

"My teacher Jane would be able to explain everything.."

Darcy seemed to doze off, looking at the edge of her cup with wide eyes lost in some kind of thought of home. 

"What does that have to do with the stone?"

"You know the civil war?"

"Yeah..."

"It's been going on for over five hundred years, which isn't long for our people but when I was chosen to become the next in line for the throne.. The process that fixes and completes our souls-- They broke it-- The other side did in an attempt to disrupt my family's mission and now my soul is, well, broken."

Natasha had her chin resting in between her thumb and forefinger as she listened to Darcy's story closely. 

The princess continued, "They're plan worked and when our city became occupied instead of just killing me and risking a riot from the people they just decided to wait for me to die, since I don't have long to live."

"How long to do you have?" Natasha asked, a strong urge to hold the other woman's hand came over as she saw the defeated and scared look in the princess's face. 

"100 to 120 years at best."

"That's my lifespan." Natasha said dryly, 

Darcy nodded and took a sip of her drink, "Yeah, it's not long. But that stone originated on my planet and I know that it will be able to fix my soul. I'm not letting them leave me to rot. I've been trapped there long enough." Her voice became passionate as she spoke. 

When Darcy spoke again she was smiling and there was that sparkle in her eyes that Natasha had originally fallen for, "Now, with a dangerous pirate such as yourself I'll be able to do it and see the universe while I'm at it!" She waved her arms to gesture to the entire universe. 

Natasha was still staring blankly at the surface of the small table between them. She didn't comment on what Darcy had said and instead, "We got a possible lead. It's at a prison on Venus."

Darcy's eyes widened, her energy finally coming back to her, apparently Clint's tea was actually helpful, "Venus? I've read about that planet, it's gorgeous! And named after a gorgeous woman if I'm correct?" She winked and Natasha shook her head with a chuckle. 

The next thing Darcy said was more serious, "So you'll help me? You trust me?"

The pirate sighed, "Trust you? No. I don't trust anyone." She paused, "But I will help you."

Darcy literally clapped and began thanking the pirate over and over again. 

Natasha leaned back in her chair, "Has anyone ever told you that you're very hard to say no to?"

Darcy smirked and batted her eyes, "It's the eyelashes."

Natasha laughed. They both glanced up suddenly as there was a knock at Clint's door and they heard the archer move quickly to the door and opening it. 

"Unless you're selling cookies I'm not open." He said from the other room and apparently through the door. 

Natasha smiled and turned to speak to the princess again before there was a crunch from the front of the apartment and Clint's raised and annoyed voice became clear. 

"I'm not selling anything, scram! If you're that desperate go talk to Kate! Jeezums!"

They heard the door locks being put into place and then another crack which definitely sounded like someone had broken down the door. 

"Hey, lady, what did I just sa-- Come on in.." There was the distinct sound of a gun clicking safety off and Clint's voice went from angry to nervous as he chuckled forcefully. 

Natasha stood up as she heard his voice change and she motioned for the princess to stay put on the chair she was sitting in. The pirate pulled a gun out of one of her boots and snuck through the house to get a better look at what was happening.

She heard Clint muttering nervously and she peeked around the corner, she couldn’t see anything for sure, whoever had forced their way in was being quiet about their intentions.  
She glanced around and jumped, nearly making a noise as she realized that Darcy was just about a foot away from her, staring around the corner as well, waiting for someone to make a sounds.

Natasha growled irritated and made a few hand gestures telling the princess to leave only to have Darcy shake her head and move closer. Natasha quietly cursed and turned back to the situation. If the princess wanted to get herself killed in the name of curiosity that was her choice.

“Alright, but you’re not going to find anything and you can’t have my dog, lady.” Clint explained in a fake calm.

Natasha got closer to the wall as Clint came into view, walking forward with his head up and his hands up, a gun was pointing into his back and whoever was behind him shoved him forward.

“I need to ask you a few questions.” The calm and collected voice demanded and Natasha’s eyes went wide and she continued to curse.

Clint was pushed forward and Maria Hill pushed the gun into his back, leading toward the hidden women. Darcy leaned to the pirate, “Man, she found us fast. I wanna be pissed but I’m actually kind of impressed.”

Natasha elbowed the other woman in the ribs and took a step from the wall, her face as cold as stone although her heart was beating fast.

“Commander Hill.” Natasha stated as she faced the cyborg and her hostage.

“Romanov?” The slick haired woman pushed the archer to the side and walked up to the shorter woman. Hill didn’t say anything, although it seemed rather obvious especially when Darcy moved behind the redhead, watching the interaction with bright eyes.

Hill never spoke but Natasha still felt a pang of guilt go through her chest just at the commanders slightly betrayed face.

“I can explain.” Natasha put the gun down and attempted to move towards the slender woman.

“Can you?” Was that a break? Natasha could have sworn that she heard the commander’s voice crack slightly even in those two words.

Natasha braced herself, “Yes, I can.” She looked down, suddenly understanding the shock in the other woman’s face and she put the gun up and offered her hand. “You came to find me and I let you down, let me explain.” Natasha’s voice softened as she waited patiently for the other woman to take her hand.

“I’ve never done anything like this before.” Hill said sadly, “I was a fool.”

“And so am I. Give me a chance?” The redhead asked sweetly. 

Hill’s lips thinned and she glared down at the ground but she took the shorter woman’s hand nonetheless.

The moment was sweet but it was slightly ruined by Darcy in the background who followed it with a loud “Aww!”

It took Natasha about an hour to explain everything that had happened to Hill because the commander required details and motives to nearly everything that the redhead told her about the escape.

When she was finished Maria looked her straight in the eye, “This is stupid. You know that right?”

Natasha smiled, “Yeah, I do but—“ She leaned in closer to the taller woman and whispered, taking heed to the fact that she knew Darcy was in the other room listening on their conversation. “For some reason I’m not afraid. In fact, I feel like smiling all the time.”

Hill raised an eyebrow, “This princess must have quite an effect on you.”

Natasha chuckled, “Maybe but for once in my career I don’t know where I’m going and even though it scared me at first, it only inspires me now. I’m… ready for whatever is ahead of us.”

“I’m intrigued.” Hill sat back, the both of them speaking at full volume again, “And it’s not like I can just go back to Fury with my pride intact. I’m in.”

Natasha grinned but she seemed slightly shocked, “Really? I didn’t take you for the valiant adventurer.”

Hill smirked, still managing to look professional, “Don’t underestimate me, Romanov. Plus, you’re going to get yourself killed without my help. I’ve seen you shoot a gun. It’s a little pathetic.”

Natasha smiled at the playful jab and put her hand out, the cyborg shook it and they both looked up as Darcy jumped up from behind the door where they both knew she was listening in.

“We’re going to be the greatest trio of badass women ever!” She said punching the air, “Hill can beat them up, Nat can trick them and I can surprise them with my cuteness!”

The two sitting women glanced at each other, “Who’s “Them”?” Hill asked dryly.

Darcy shrugged and sunk down to their level, looking between them with an excited and childlike grin, “Anyone who gets in our way!”

Hill sighed and looked at the redhead, “I see what you mean by “Infectious”. This is going to be an interesting journey.”


	7. Venus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Foggy Nelson has become a very wanted man in the pirate community and Natasha, Darcy, and hill end up meeting another very young pirate who is also determined to get the stone.

"Do either of you know how to fly this thing?" Maria stood with her hands resting on her hips with a disapproving look on her face. Natasha was sitting in the pilot's seat and Darcy was just lounging on the floor, talking a million miles an hour. 

"I know more about fixing her than I do flying her, I won't lie." Natasha looked back with a eased expression. It was strange, every time Hill had ever seen the redhead, even in footage she was glaring and tense. 

"Maria please don't let them fly me. Maria get in the pilot chair." Came the panicked voice of Isaura through the com system. "Maria, I got your back, do you have mine?"

Hill smirked and rolled her eyes but moved the redhead and slipped into the pilot seat. They had traded the old shuttle for Hill's more sophisticated cruiser, and so far their journey had been smooth. They were nearly to Venus and Darcy hadn't shut up about how excited she was about seeing the planet. 

Natasha scooted to the co-pilot seat, Darcy immediately grabbed on to her legs. "I'm not usually on this side." The pirate said with a little nervous smirk.

"I can teach you." Maria's voice was professional but her face was flirty and Darcy immediately pointed that out. A blush crept up Hill's face and Natasha playfully kicked the princess off of her legs. 

Hill dropped the subject and turned back to the console, "We'll be at the planet in about twenty minutes." She said dryly. 

Darcy stood up, "I'm going to get ready and conveniently leave you two alone for a few minutes. Don't start anything sexy without me." She winked and left the cabin. 

Natasha looked down, "I'm sorry about--" 

"Don't be, she's just honest and there's some things we haven't talked about. Other people can sense that."

Natasha didn't respond but turned forward to the void ahead of them. The silence was long and didn't break until Hill spoke.

"You know I was on Zetauri 4 during the riots?" Hill let herself glance at the other woman. 

"I didn't know that. Were you apart of the guard?"

I was the head of the rebels."

Natasha's eyes widened, "Your kidding me?" She asked, slightly shocked. 

slim woman shook her head, "I was there from the beginning... And I was there when they won. I spent a year in a Zetaurian prison-- And I was one of the lucky ones."

She let the words sink in, "I'm sorry--"

"I was the top of my class before that, I was on my way to becoming a general. I had plans but life had different plans for me and I can't argue with that."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"So you know that I'm not someone to fuck around with, I'm here for power, for that stone and I'm not here to play words like some child."

"I thought--"

"You thought wrong, whatever we had, you ruined it and I'm not hurt by that because I don't think you were going to fight for it anyway." Hill turned away, her jaw tense and her eyes focused. 

Natasha watched her closely, her face unreadable and then she stood up, giving the commander one last glance before walking out of the cabin and into the back of the ship. 

Darcy met her near the door with a grin, "Hey, anything happen while I was gone?"

Natasha pushed past her, "No." 

.

.

.

"What do you think, Clava?" America turned from the hanging mirror to face her small partner. She was wearing a skin tight prison guard's uniform with the proper weapons hanging off her waist. She waved the taser baton a few times just to show off her technique."

"I think that look suits you, but you still look like you're fifteen. That's gonna be a problem."

"They don't have to buy it for long, plus I've got all the right Identification. I'm not trying to look thirty, I'm going for 22. They'll buy it. Plus, Clava, age is how you act not what you look like."

"Tell that to the clerk you tried to buy a gun from at 12." Clava wiggled her ears and circled around the young pirate, checking her outfit, trying to see anything that might tip of one of the Wardens.

"I'll be out here if you need anything and go straight to sanitation, I don't trust these tunnels, the fire looks like it could break through at any time." Clava jumped up on one of the window sills and stared out at the clear dome surrounding them with the fire and heat fumes working every second to penetrate the barrier.

"You aren't coming with me?" America was still wiggling around in the new suit trying to break it in.

"They're only expecting one new guard, and this isn't the biggest hang out around, I promise. But I have an escape plan if anything goes wrong, just get to section B when i tell you to and you'll be fine. Plus, you know how much this heat screws up my fur."

"Suit yourself, I better get in there, I wouldn't want to be late on my first day on the job." She said with a wink and opened the ramp. a wave of heat hit her like a brick wall, and she cringed, nothing like summer on Venus.

Clava nodded and then went to the monitors, checking them again since technology tended to screw up in heat like this. 

America walked through the tunnel that led straight to sanitation and let herself be washed and dried off by the automatic system. After the door opened she shook her hair out and pulled it up into a tight, professional looking bun. She tightened her face and walked forward. 

She met the warden in the locker room and got her locker number as he explained the general process in the morning. He was a tall man, with wide shoulders and a balding head, although even with his size and weight he still displayed nervous qualities that reminded America of an oversized mouse. However, she figured he ended up like this for a reason. You didn't end up in a position like his without warrent so she wasn't too quick to judge. 

Other than that he seemed nice enough, he explained all of her duties again logically and although he said it might take her a while to get used to everything, one mistake in a place like this would lead to death. 

He gave her a tour around the facility, including the cells where hundreds of prisoners yelled and batted at her since she was new and also a woman. He showed her the cafeteria and then they went to the medical bay. He dropped her off there and told her that they would need to finish a few tests and then she could start. 

It took a while for the tour and by the time she sat down in Medical bay, she was antsy and ready to find this "Foggy" Nelson, whoever he was. She looked around, hoping that she could get out of here soon and get to the prisoner.

A cool pleasant voice interrupted her thoughts, "Nervous?" 

America looked up to see a dark woman in a medical jacket, she was beautiful in a ethereal and pure way. She smiled reassuringly at the new "Guard" The name on her name tag was "Temple."

"Excuse me?" America tried to deepen her voice subtly.

"It's fine, working in a place like this can be overwhelming but if you're tough enough you'll thrive. And if you're not--" She shrugged, "You can transfer."

"Come with me, I just need to give you a few tests."

America nodded curtly and stood up to follow the Dr. Temple, " I hope this won't take too long, I'm eager to begin my work." America tried to sound as adult like as possible. 

Dr. Temple raised an eyebrow, "Hmph, don't worry, in a couple of days you'll be begging for a headache so you can get away. And to answer your question, no, this won't take very long." She gestured to a small hospital bed, "Sit down."

America obeyed and waited for the Doctor to turn back around, she had to stop herself from swinging her legs on the bed and act as professional as possible. Dr. Temple was looking over her records on a small medical tablet.

"Now, Miss Sanchez, it says here that you're 22 years old?"

America nodded, suddenly remembering that she had a different name here, "I look young for my age."

"No kidding, why prison guard? That's not usually a career choce for young people these days."

"Childhood dream." America said, almost sarcastically. 

"Who gave you your preliminary exam?" Temple was looking through her records closely and America was afraid she would figure something out. 

"Dr. Strange."

"I haven't heard of him."

"He works in the prison on Curodeen 5, where I transferred from." In reality Dr. Strange wasn't even a real medical professional, he gave out fake I.Ds, medical records, and anything else a fugitive might need. For cash, of course.

Dr. Temple nodded, "Will you excuse me for a moment? I’ll be right back." She turned and left the pirate in the examination room. 

America's heart jumped and she prepared herself to have to break out early and uproot the whole plan. She really didn't want to take out the whole place, but hey, if she didn't have any other choice. 

Dr. Temple came back in (without any security following her, that was good) she smiled kindly at the young "Guard". "You're good to go, thank you for your patience."

America exhaled, not even realizing that she had been holding her breath the whole time. She smiled and thanked the doctor before leaving medical bay and heading out to finish her mission, unhindered. If all went well, she would be able to get the information she needed and be out of the prison with out anyone being the wiser. 

 

.

.

.

“You’re not coming with us, that’s final.” Maria had just stepped out to where Natasha and Darcy were discussing the plan. She was wearing a tight fitting business suit that showed off her toned muscles.

Darcy looked up, “Of course I am, I’m not going to stay here while you two have all the fun.”

“If they catch us, Darcy, if something goes wrong with our papers it could be pretty dangerous.” Natasha explained, a little more diplomatically.

“Besides—“Maria continued, “Why would three internal affairs officers be coming to a prison, that’s overkill don’t you think?”

“I could be the trainee, you know, following you guys around to see how everything works. I’m the one who started this little—“ She gestured to the other two women, “Thing. I get to go out on the missions.”

Hill sighed and Natasha looked up at her, “It would be easier to just let her go with us.”

“Fine, But I’m not happy about it. Suit up.”

Darcy nodded, ignoring the pirate’s reluctance to letting her go and running into the other room to change. When she came out in the suit, Natasha choked on her water and went into a coughing fit.

“Let’s go.”

When they went outside the ship, moving straight into the offices, Darcy’s eyes widened at the gorgeous and hot colors that seemed to surround everything on the planet’s surface. IT resembled being trapped in a clear ball that was being submerged and then raised up in a pool of lava. It certainly felt like it as well. The insides of the Venus Dome never went below 110 degrees.

“What a weird place to build on…”

Natasha glanced back at the princess, “Not if you plan on making it a giant prison.”

“ So they just take all the criminals and wait for them to boil slowly to death?”

“That’s the idea. Now act calm and don’t say anything.”

Maria and Natasha walked up to the guard at the gate, a chubby woman with thin hair and small eyes. The pirates held up their fake badges, “Officers Hillerman and Rushman, we’re here on the Nelson case.” Hill was extremely convincing.

The guard didn’t say anything but scanned over her notes, a minute later she looked up and said through the glass, “You two are on the list but who’s the other one?”

Natasha gesture towards the princess, “This is Officer Lewis, she’s training. Figured this would be good practice for her. Is that going to be a problem?”

“Not at all, just let me add her to the list and get her a badge. Walk forward please.”

They obliged and a moment later the guard came out of her office and clipped three picture I.Ds onto the posing pirates. She pointed them the right way and told them to look for a guard named Dahl.

They did as they were told, walking confidently through the first hall to where a short woman with natural green hair and gills was waiting patiently for them. “If you want to take a seat inside, the prisoner will be here in a moment.”

“This must be the perfect temperature for you, isn’t it?” Darcy couldn’t help but ask. Maria gave her a grave look.

However the guard smiled, “I don’t know what everybody’s complaining about. Feels fine to me.”

They went into the white interrogation room and sat down; an extra chair was brought in for Darcy. They knew they were being monitored so they kept their mouth shut.

A few minutes later a man in an orange jumper was brought in, cuffs around his wrists and feet. However, despite the precautions they were giving him, he didn’t look like a very dangerous man. In fact, he actually smiled when he was sat down.

“You know, I can’t thank you enough for pulling me out of there, it was getting really boring.” He chuckled.

Natasha raised an eyebrow, “Franklin P. Nelson, is it?”

“You can call me Foggy, everyone does.”

“You seem rather chipper for a man who just got sentenced to five years in here, Foggy.”

The man shrugged, “I’m just a really positive guy.”

The pirates looked at each other for a moment then Maria’s eyes went to the guard just outside the door, she waved him in, “Could you please turn off the cameras in here? We have a warrant to speak to him privately.”

She sent something to him and he looked at it, obviously unsure about this request, but as he glanced over the well faked document he nodded, glancing towards Foggy for a brief moment.

“Don’t worry; we’re going to keep him in one piece.” She assured the guard. Nonetheless, Foggy’s calm face became worried and he shifted in his seat.

When they knew that they were no longer being watched Maria and Natasha leaned forward, “We’d like to ask you a few questions, Mr. Nelson. First off, we need to know everything you have on the Anima stone.”

His face scrunched up in confusion, “The what?” He asked, but he wasn’t a very good liar.

Hill leaned even closer, looking him straight in the eye, “We know that you and your partner have been researching the object, Mr. Nelson, don’t play dumb with us.”

“—Now—“Natasha continued, “What do you have on it’s location?”

“I went to prison for the heist of the palace treasury on Jupiter, if you’re not here to ask me about that, then we have nothing to talk about.”

It was his turn to look smug and he leaned back, looking very pleased with himself. The pirates looked at each other again, speaking without words.

“That’s a very good point, Mr. Nelson, however, your time in law school will not help you much when I cut off your fingers one by one until you tell us what we need to know.” Hills voice was calm and even, without the slightest inflection of anger.

Foggy’s eyes widened and he stuttered, looking back at the door, suddenly a lot more interested in getting out of that room. However, if someone were to look inside they would certainly not guess that the officer was threatening to cut off digits.

“You’re not internal affairs are you?” He asked a question that was drenched in fear.

Hill was about to answer when red lights and alarms started sounding in the prison around them and a urgent voice called through the intercom, “Alert! Everyone on the ground, we have a code purple emergency!”

The pirates shared another look, they didn’t want to jump up and run immediately if this wasn’t about them. Hill’s eyes went to the door and they were met by a pair of young eyes. A short girl in a prison guard uniform was staring at her from the door. By the time she blinked the girl had run off. Hill knew immediately, that that girl was definitely not a prison guard. 

She turned as calmly as she could and gestured for Natasha to come closer, she sighed, “America Chavez is here. We’re going to have to change our plans.” Is all she said before everything went to shit.


	8. Escaping the Prison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Due to unexpected circumstances, Hill, Romanov, and Darcy end up in the fight of their lives against a very young but powerful pirate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this chapter being late, I decided to take a mental health day yesterday!

"America Chavez?" Darcy stood up just as an explosion blasted through the side of the hallway, shaking the building to it's core. The princess put her hands over her ears and closed her eyes. 

Before anything else could happen Maria had spun around the table and grabbed the back of the prisoner's uniform. He attempted to pull away but stopped when the pirate shook him by the back of the neck. 

Natasha pulled out her gun and stood next to Hill, waiting for orders of what she should do next. They could hear the riots currently happening outside and the yelling and stomping of the prison personnel. 

"Check the door."

Natasha complied, moving to the metal door and glancing out the small window, the door was busted open with the pirate in front of it and she was pushed down to the floor. She rolled over as a flood of guards came in through the door; she was on her knees with her gun raised as their faces became visible. 

The redhead was about to shoot, when Hill raised a calm hand, "What the hell is going on?" She asked the guard in the front. 

"A rogue guard or an imposter, we're not sure. Either way, a prisoner's dead and we're trying to contain the other prisoners. It would be best if you left." 

Hill tightened her grip on Foggy's uniform and he shifted uncomfortably, "Then we're taking this prisoner with us. He has valuable information."

The guard thought about it, his face hardening as he considered the option. One which he was obviously not fond of. But he didn't get a chance to give his verdict before there was a gunshot and he was flown forward, knocked out on the hard floor. 

Darcy screamed and Maria pulled Nelson out of the way, pulling her gun up and firing four warning shots out the door. The princess pulled Natasha over to the side as well and the pirate struggled to stand up. 

Nothing came through the door and the group glanced around wildly, waiting for the attacker to come through the door. However, they were all watching with their heads up but the main threat came in under their eye line and before she knew what happened, Hill was knocked over by a flash of pink. 

Clava pushed her over easily and stood proudly, holding a gun and pointing it at the pirate. Her tail whipped back and forth excitedly. Behind her, America came though the door, wielding two guns and grinning. 

"I wanna thank you ladies for moving him halfway for me. I really appreciate it. Now, if you don't move. We won't kill you. Got it?"

Hill's jaw set and she glanced over at the other two women. In a quick moment of beautiful coordination, Darcy jumped to the side, flipping the table over fast enough for Natasha to slid herself behind it, dodging the shots that Chavez was firing at the floor. 

Hill lifted her leg and kicked the small alien as she was distracted. Clava hit the ground with a padded thud but a moment later she was back on her feet, determined to tear the face off of Hill. 

From there everything went to hell, even more than before, Darcy threw her jacket onto the small pirate and suddenly the air was filled with chaotic gun fire as Clava threw a shocked tantrum from underneath the jacket. 

Natasha bolted forward, grabbing America and pulling her down to the ground, preventing her from shooting Hill. The gun slid to the other side of the hallway but Chavez shot a perfectly aimed kick at the redhead, hitting her directly in the jaw. America finished her off with a kick to the gut. 

She groaned and wiped off the blood from her lip, turning angrily as Foggy slipped out of the room and escaped down the hallway. Darcy was still wrestling with Clava but she looked up as she saw Natasha lying on the ground clutching her stomach. She wrapped the small pirate up and tied the jacket arms around her before sliding her out of the way. 

She didn't know where Hill went but she crawled over to Natasha, keeping her head down and hoping that the young pirate didn't turn back around from where she was chasing after the prisoner. 

"Nat! Nat are you okay?" Darcy shook her shoulders lightly.

The redhead coughed, "That kids got quite the kick." She said with a pained chuckle. 

She removed her hand and Darcy's eyes widened and she shifted to get a better look. "It looks like she had some help." 

Natasha looked down and held her hand up, it was dripping in blood and on her abdomen where the girl kicked her was a shallow but heavily bleeding wound. "Well, at least I don't feel like such a wussy."

Darcy didn't smile at the joke, her hands were shaking and she was breathing in shudders, "What do I do, Nat?"

"Nothing, I'm okay, let's just get out of here." The redhead attempted to pull herself up. Her face twisted in pain but she shook her head and moved herself into a sitting position. Darcy stayed close; her hand's following the pirate's arms as she moved. 

"Help me up and let's get out of here." Darcy immediately obliged and pulled the shorter woman up on her feet. Natasha groaned but pulled her arm tightly to her side and took a step forward. 

"What are we going to do?" The princess stayed near to the pirate. 

"Get the hell out of here."

"What about Foggy?" Darcy checked the hallway, there were sounds of loud fighting just on the other side. They could hear the yells and screams of both the prisoners and the guards. 

"Hopefully Hill's got him. If she doesn't, then he's probably dead." She said blatantly. "The best we can do is get back to the ship."

"Okay, that way." Darcy pointed to the front gate. 

Natasha shook her head, "No, this way." She hobbled painfully into the room across from where they were standing. "This'll also alert Hill to our position. If she's still here. Which I have a feeling that she is."

Natasha brought out a magnetic explosive and stuck it onto the back wall, she clicked a few buttons and then walked the other way, bringing Darcy with her. "Get down." She said as she used the rest of her strength to pull the princess to the ground. 

Darcy covered her ears and the pirate did the same. The wall was blown out with an explosion that caused the ground to rumble. The princess whimpered but Natasha patted her arm and getsured to the hole the bomb made. Darcy nodded, "Let's go."

Before they left through their makeshift exit, Natasha grabbed a flare gun out of one of of the cabinents in the locker room, pointed it in the air and pulled the trigger. The red flame shot out into the air, alerting Hill where the safest exit was before her comrades made their way to the ship. 

 

.

.

.

 

"You're pretty good, for a child, but let me teach you a few things." Maria stood back breathing heavily. Her lip was split and a section of her uniform was ripped off.   
She was standing in front of America, who, despite her lack of experience had managed to keep herself together in this fight. However, she looked like she was about to be   
taken out. Nonetheless, she pulled out a knife from her boot and went towards the older pirate. 

Without missing a beat, Maria ducked down sweeping the girls legs out from underneath her. She elbowed her wrist and the knife flew out, as America hit the floor with a thud, Maria stood over her holding the girls weapon. 

America glared up at Hill. The older pirate looked arrogant as she stood over the younger. But she didn't have a lot of time to gloat as America pulled herself up and threw a sideways kick right at the older pirate's stomach. Hill dodged the attack but still ended up with a nasty slice down her forearm. 

Maria glared at the kid, grumbling bitterly to herself, "Little pain in the ass."

A few rooms away Clava pulled out a large two handed gun that seemed to weigh her down. Foggy was trapped in the corner as he realized that he couldn't run any more. The small pirate sneered, "You're lucky we need you 'cause otherwise I would of just killed you by now."

Foggy thought for a moment, his hands up gingerly, "Thank you?" 

The pink pirate growled and shoved the gun forward, "Move it, punk." She ordered. 

He didn't move and he was looking past her hopefully, She stabbed the gun in his direction again and yelled but she stopped short when she felt the tip of a gun on the back of her head. 

"Drop your weapon and back away from the prisoner."

Clava groaned and glanced above her to where a woman in a medical jacket was pointing a handgun right at her head. The small pirate rolled her eyes, no longer intimidated by developments like this one. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Claire Temple and this prisoner's health is my responsibility, so I suggest you just get the hell out of here."

Clava grumbled, "Oh brother-- Hey, lady you just need to calm down, alright?"  
"I'm the one with the gun, now drop it!" She ordered. 

Clava was about to reluctantly obey when America crashed through the door right into the doctor, sending them both forward onto the floor. 

"Clava! Clava, we've got a problem!"

"Yeah?" 

"Yeah, the Military are here, we need to get the fuck out!"

"What about Foggy?"

"We're taking him with us." America stood up, effectively taking the doctor's gun and grabbing onto the front of Foggy's uniform. 

"No you're not." Temple stood up and blocked the door, America and Clava gave each other a glance. 

"Fine, you're coming with us too, Doc." America grabbed her and pushed her forward, Claire resisted but didn't have much of a choice since the girl had a gun pointed at her head. 

"What happened to Hill?"

"I took care of her."

They were halfway out the building when the explosions began from air attacks, attempting to block any escape attempts. The ground shook underneath them and they were all panting and sweating from the heat. 

America grunted and pushed Temple to the side, keeping her gun pointed at the doctor. "You stay there if you want to live, Doc." She fired a warning shot next to her and Claire jumped. 

The duo and the prisoner were out of her sight and although Claire was distraught she was still looking around, watching for any casualties. She was about to move when she felt the barrel on a gun on her temple and she groaned, she also felt the warm sensation of blood on her back. 

"Do exactly as I say and you'll live through this, understand." Hill's labored breathing was in her ear. 

"You know, I'm getting really tired of this day."

"That's to bad, Doctor. Move." Claire did as she was told, moving forward into the tunnels with the gun placed on her head. 

"This is just great." She said as she looked out and saw the ever increasing military presence and the fighter planes that were circling the vicinity firing at anything that moved. 

 

.

.

.

 

"How long should we wait? Darcy was pacing the ship, the explosions from outside were getting closer and closer. Natasha was sitting up on a bench area; she had bandages and was currently wrapping them around her torso, in an attempt to stop the bleeding. 

“I don’t know. But Hill will come back soon, I’m sure.” The truth was that she didn’t know what was going on. Was Hill dead? She had no idea but what she did know that within the next hour they were going to have to get the hell out of this system, with or without Hill. 

“I see them!” Darcy pointed and shouted loudly through the ship. 

Natasha stood up, keeping a hand on her side, “Maria and Foggy?” She asked walking up to stand next to the princess.

“No, the girl and the space kangaroo and Foggy. They’re headed towards us.” 

“Shit!” Natasha moved past her and headed for the cockpit, she would have to get out or kill them or both. 

“Wait! Maria!” Darcy jumped up and down a few times and pointed out the window. Natasha stopped what she was doing and ran to the window, pulling out a pair of hypersensitive binoculars. 

She looked through them and then dropped the device, “Looks like she’s got a hostage, the real question is, why are the other two coming here?”

“Maybe because of that.” Darcy pointed to the side at a particularly large explosion. 

“Do you think maybe they made a deal?”

Natasha shrugged, “I don’t know but let’s be ready for whatever is about to happen. Here.” She handed the princess a two handed blaster and gestured her head towards the ramp. 

They got in position behind some crates and waited for the ramp to open. When it did, they glanced around to see Hill along with the newly acquired group pushing their way inside. Foggy and the woman were shoved inside first. 

Hill aimed her gun at America’s throat, “You try to fuck us over, I’ll kill you, I don’t care if you’re 12.”

America sneered, “I’m fifteen.”

Natasha stood up with her gun raised, “What the hell is going on?”

“Their ship was destroyed, they want to make a deal.” Either way, we need to get the hell out of here before our ship is next.” Hill made for the cockpit but ended up nearly passing out as she moved. 

America pushed passed her, “I got it.”

Hill groaned, some in pain and some in the fact that she was letting a girl fly her ship out of Venus. She was bleeding profusely out of a bullet wound in her shoulder and her side. 

Claire moved to help her, but the pirate pulled her gun out, “Back in the corner prisoner.” She threatened. 

“I’m trying to help you, idiot.”

“And why would I believe that?” Hill raised an eyebrow, still pointing the gun at the doctor. 

“Because I’m a fucking doctor.” She ignored the gun and moved under the pirate’s arm to help her get to a cot. Hill thought about it for a moment then dropped the gun. Clava was in the process of moving Foggy into a containment area. 

Claire moved Hill to a cot and made her lay down before leaving and breaking into the first aid. Natasha leaned down and looked at the other pirate critically, “Why the hell are they here?”

“We needed a hostage.”

“Not her, the other two.”

Hill sighed, “They want the same thing we do, it can’t hurt to have a bigger crew, plus now they owe us. It’s an investment.”

“An investment? What the hell, Hill? They’re going to kill us in our sleep the moment they get the chance to, you know that.”

Hill covered her face with her hand, “I know that very well, Romanov.” Then her voice dropped, “I wasn’t leaving a fifteen year old to die at the hands of the Venus guard, she’s a child.”

“A child who would kill both of us if she had the chance to.”

Hill didn’t answer but laid back as Temple returned and began working on her wounds. Romanov left the captain and went into the lounge area of the ship, she was met with a very nervous Darcy. The princess was sitting stiffly in a chair and mumbling something to herself. Natasha didn’t know why she cared so much. 

“You alright, princess?”

Darcy stood up to face her, she looked down shyly, something that was always out of character for the princess, “Can I have a hug?”

“First time in the middle of a combat situation?” Romanov asked with a look of sympathy. Darcy nodded quickly. 

“Come here.” Natasha opened her arms and the princess tucked herself into the pirate’s body. Enjoying the fleeting comfort that was so rare in this situation.


	9. Hearts of Gold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha learns a little bit more about the princess's expectations and Murdock is woken up with the news that his friend was rescued without his help.

“I don’t know how you get used to that…” Darcy stepped into the small yet luxurious bunk where Natasha was patching up her own small wound. She had declined to let Temple work on it and then disappeared. Darcy followed behind her a few moments later.

Tasha glanced up at the princess and she smiled, “You don’t really. But that’s been a way of life for me since I was little.”

Darcy sat down next to her. Most people left a goon three foot barrier around Natasha where they didn’t cross but Darcy had either not been affected by that bubble or simply chosen to ignore it. Darcy watched as Natasha finished patching up her side.

“You know if you’re scared you can stay with me.” The pirate blurted out.

Darcy grinned at her, “I’ll take you up on that offer.” There was a pause, then the princess continued. “I’m not going to lie, this isn’t exactly what I imagined when I escaped your ship.” She gestured around the ship.

“Were you expecting grand adventure, fleeting glances and nights on fire?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I was. And to be honest, I just expected those things with you. Like, it would just be us on a hunt for the past.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow, “Well, I hate to break it to you but that’s not the way it is out here. There’s no hearts of gold and makeshift families, there’s only what you can do and if you can survive. You’re looking for life, they’re looking for power and riches.”

“And why are you here, then?” Darcy looked the redhead over curiously, her big brown eyes hypnotizing the pirate.

The pirate huffed, “I’m here because you pulled me into this. If I die in the process, well, that’s just a bonus.”

Darcy’s face dropped, and her voice lowered to a whisper, “You know, I think you’re wrong.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know if it would be worth it if you died, and I have seen hearts of gold out here. I’m thinking that maybe you’re just not looking close enough.”

There was a pause and then Natasha shook her head, “Why the hell do you seem to like me so much? I don’t get it, everyone else gets it but just goes over your head, princess. One of these days that spirit is going to get you killed.”

“Not if you save me.”

“What makes you think that I’m the hero here? If you’re looking for some dashing superhero to sweep you off your feet, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”

“I just know some things, and one of the things that I know is that when I look at you I see a raging fire. I see a forest fire, a goddamn natural disaster and I can’t take my eyes away. I trust that if I fall, you’ll catch me. You won’t be able to stop yourself,” She poked Natasha in the arm to emphasize her point.

The pirate scoffed at that, “That’s rich, princess but don’t hold your breath. There’s no love and glory here, there’s just will to survive and a bad attitude.”  
Darcy wrapped her arms around the pirate’s body, including her arms and hummed into her shoulder, “Hmmn, whatever you say.”

Natasha rolled her eyes as the princess clung onto her and didn’t let go. She had the distinct feeling that this woman had no intention of letting go anytime soon.

.

.

.

“What even happened down there?” Clava had pulled America into a corner and was now whispering to her out of ear range of the doctor and Maria.

America sighed, “I had to kill a prisoner, okay? And then everything just got out of hand.” She rested her hands on her hips.

The small pirate continued to watch her expectantly, “And?”

“And what? Shit happens, we move on.”

“Why did you kill a prisoner? You were supposed to be undercover, how do you screw up that badly?” Clava kept a hand gripped onto the edge of the young pirate’s shirt.

“He started boasting about what he had done, okay, and about the fact that he was getting out in a couple of months. I didn’t want that to happen so I just killed him.” She explained calmly.

Clava shifted her weight, “You, you just killed him? Just like that?” She made the motion of switching off a light switch.

“Yes! But it’s over now and we can move on.”

“Look, M.A.C, I’m not sharing the treasure with anyone and that’s just the way it is.”

America put a hand on her smaller comrade’s shoulder, “We’re not sharing it with anyone, trust me, by the time we get there it’ll only be us.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I am, don’t worry about it.” And then she patted her friend’s shoulder and led her back into the sitting area.

 

.

.

.

“Sir, Foggy Nelson’s coordinates are currently moving towards us. Sir. Sir.” A nasely AI nagged through a small, dark ship’s halls. The ship, “The Daredevil” was currently cloaked on the moon Neith, close to Venus.

“I heard you the first time. Linda.” A man in a crimson red uniform rolled out of a covered bunk and into the hallway. He wore dark glasses and he carried a red walking stick that was able to be turned on and off. It also doubled as a taser.

“I thought our transport wasn’t supposed to be coming through here until tomorrow morning? He made his way expertly to the cabin of the ship. The controls were specifically designed so that he would be able to fly and fight without the need for vision.

On his planet, this was a common design but in this area of the galaxy, you would be lucky if someone had even heard of such a design. Most species would consider his blindness a disability and they had created ways of reversing blindness, however, his people were born blind and they had evolved beyond that of other species.

“It wasn’t. This ship looks like a class three. It’s clean but it looks like one of Fury’s shuttles.”

“And Foggy’s on that ship?”

“Yes.”

“Then someone broke him out before we did.” A holographic image of the ship appeared in front of him and he felt the characteristic’s of the ship, including the designation.

He sighed, “That’s definitely one of Fury’s ships. What have you gotten yourself into, Foggy?”

“Foggy is not here, sir. He is on the pirate vessel.”

Murdock closed his eyes, his ship may have been state of the art but maybe his AI could use a few updates. “I know that, Lin, thank you.”

“What do you want to do, sir?”

Murdock thought about it for a moment and then he shrugged, “We’ll get him from the ship. That’s all we can do, let’s move out of orbit and wait for them to approach. Maybe we can confuse their sensors.”

“On one of Fury’s designs?”

“Good point, let’s hail them when they get close enough. Maybe being diplomatic is the best way to go here.”

.

.

.

“Is this more what you were imagining?” Natasha asked with a hint of sarcasm. 

Darcy was currently half asleep curled around the pirate’s torso, her face buried in her neck. If Tasha wanted to get up she wouldn’t be able to because at first Darcy had just laid next to her but once she had drifted away, Natasha realized that she was the type of sleeper who pulled in everything and everyone around them. 

Darcy hummed, squeezing her tighter, and the pirate tried to shift slowly away only realizing after that she wasn’t going anywhere without a fight. She sighed and dropped a hand onto the princess’s shoulder, laying her head back.

From the other side of the wall she could hear Maria and Claire talking. Temple had made it perfectly clear that she didn’t like Hill or the dirty pirates but when asked why the hell she was helping them she responded with a sharp “Because I’m too good a person and I hate it.”

“Rain…”

Natasha looked down at the princess, “Huh?”

“The rusty robot stole my earring..” 

Natasha raised an eyebrow; Darcy was talking in her sleep. This was going to be great is all she thought. 

Darcy moved her head in a little circle and snored suddenly and loudly, “The Cardivan’s in the puddle… So pretty..” The princess snorted and shifted closer to Natasha. A little drool spot was becoming evident on her shirt and Natasha sighed, slightly annoyed, slightly curious, and slightly happy.

The alarms in the ship suddenly started going off and both Natasha and Darcy st straight up in their bunk.

"Fish are friends!" Darcy cried out, still talking from her sleep as she sat up and Natasha rubbed her back lightly until she caught onto what was going on. A moment later Hill was in their doorway apparently choosing not to acknowledge the fact that they were in the same bed. 

"We've got company, ladies."


	10. Mutineers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ward catches up with his target just as relations on board Hill's ship crumble apart.

“Have the probe go around the right to stay under their sensors.” Ward watched from the central viewing screen as his small probe shot out into space and then promptly attached itself onto the small ship he was currently dogging.

He had gotten pretty close , close enough for the move to be risky since he had heard that Maria Hill had gone rogue but so far they had not seen him or discovered him cloaked and watching.

It may have been because of the fact that they were currently preoccupied by the fact that “The Daredevil” had come from the surface of Neith and although they were not firing on each other, Ward wanted to find out just what was going on.

The viewing screen disappeared and was replaced by information that was pouring out of the hard drive of his probe. He hit a few buttons, hacking into the ships intelligence and visual systems.

An incredibly clear picture of the ship’s interior came over the screen and he flicked through the various rooms of the ship, taking note of the discreet weapons systems.

He stopped when he finally found the crew. Instead of being scattered they were all congregated in what looked like a makeshift interrogation room. The crew were standing around Foggy Nelson, he looked a little to cocky for the circumstances.

But whatever was going on, Ward found and locked onto his target, the Princess. She was standing next to a redheaded woman, Grant didn’t recognize her so he just moved on, debating on how well his chances would be if he were to take the princess out here and now versus wait and watch.

Also present was, just who he feared, Maria Hill. Next to her, standing arrogantly with their weapons raised was America Chavez and Clava. At them he sighed, there was no way he would be able to take them by surprise with that crew. He wondered why the hell Chavez was working with Hill and why was the princess involved in all of this shit.

He accessed the audio when Murdock appeared on a holographic table looking relaxed, a normal tactic of negotiation. The scene became instantly more loud in the cabin of his cruiser.

“What are you doing, foggy?” Murdock asked pleasantly.

Maria made to push him out of the captain’s line of sight but Foggy chuckled and said nervously, “You know me, irresistible. Little late aren’t you, Matt?”

Matt raised an eyebrow, “Hey, don’t blame me, I already had a plan it’s not my fault you decided to get kidnapped. Why are they kidnapping you? By the way.”

“Information, Murdock. You can have him back when we’re done with him.” Hill said abruptly.

“”When we’re done with him”? Jesus, Foggy, what did you get yourself into this time?” Daredevil shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing. “What do you want to know?”

Hill shook her head, “None of your business, Murdock.”

She made to end the transmission but Matt cut her off, “It will be my business when I take your ship apart piece by piece. Anything you want from him you can get from me.” His voice changed from light to severe quickly and it made Hill pause.

“What do have on the Anima Stone?” She asked almost hesitantly.

Ward cut off the audio and switched to his intelligence systems, watching the symbols racing across his eyes smoothly. He searched for the item they were talking about and read everything there was about it.

A mythical item that was surrounded by the ruins of the ancient ones. It was supposed to have been the pinnacle of what they achieved. Their gift to whoever needed it in the future. It was supposed to have been surrounded by tests and puzzles to weed out unworthy candidates of the stone’s power. There was no known location or galaxy coordinates.

In all, there had been around two hundred different individuals that had gone after the power of the stone. All of them disappeared, their lives, their ships, their crews and even their information had been wiped clean. Most brushed this off, however, stating that whatever goose chase they were on led straight to a black hole.

Granted, he thought, none of those people whether they had been explorers, pirates, treasure hunters, or paid crews for a government, had never come from Pacis itself, which, according to legend was where the decedents of the ancient ones resided. A possible reason behind their superior technology despite being such a young species.

Of course, pirates were going after this thing, so many before them had, and yet it still didn’t explain the strange group that had apparently come together for this legend. However, he would be lying if he said that he wasn’t slightly curious and intrigued by the idea of having the power over life and death.

He snapped out of his thoughts when Hill, from the screen, pulled out a gun. But rather than pointing it at Nelson she was pointing it at the redhead that he didn’t know. He tapped into the audio again.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Hill sneered.

His interest peeked when he realized that the princess had moved behind the stranger while America and Clava stood behind Hill. Nelson was making an exaggerated face of discomfort but he was transported away a second later, no doubt onto the Daredevil.

Ward switched off the audio again and moved the screen to the front viewer and he watched carefully as the dark red ship moved away quickly, headed for the Andromeda galaxy. When he was sure that they were gone he switched yet again to the confrontation on board Hill’s ship.

The redhead was backing away from the captain and he didn’t blame her by the look in Hill’s eyes. He turned the audio back on.

“You have five minutes to get the hell off my ship before I kill you on the spot. I don’t tolerate mutineers.

The redhead paused looking the captain in the eye but then she dropped her weapon to her side and turned away. Ward wouldn’t have cared except for the fact that the Princess, his target, turned away with the stranger.

Hill stopped her, “Stay with us if you want to live.”

The princess shook her head and pulled her arm out of the captain’s grip, “I’m going with Natasha.” She stated and left.

Ward raised an eyebrow, Natasha… Who was this unknown woman? She didn’t come up on any of Hill’s known people and she wasn’t on Fury’s bridge crew. As far as he knew, she was nobody.

 

.

.

.

“Get out.”

The door to the tiny shuttle craft slid shut as Hill looked down and then left them alone in the craft. Natasha sighed, her arm leaning on the edge of the shuttle door, her face heavy and her eyes sad. 

The shuttle lifted off and left the small docking area of Hill’s ship and Natasha moved away from the door and sat in one of the small chairs in the cabin. 

The shuttle was just an emergency pod essentially so it was equipped with one small bunk, a viewing screen, very limited sensors and no weapons save for what the pilot decided to bring on board. 

Darcy had remained unnaturally quiet as the pirate dropped her face in her hand and breathed in and out slowly as if to calm herself down. Darcy moved next to her however and watched her closely. After a few minutes she couldn’t hold back the words any longer. 

“So what are we gonna do?” 

Natasha looked up at the princess. She knew that she felt bad for the pirate’s circumstances and she knew that Darcy had taken a risk to stay with her but she also couldn’t deny the fact that she was trying to hide a smile. 

Natasha pushed herself up on her elbows and sighed, looking out into the void. “Well, I guess I’m going to go to Tah’woh, they usually have work available that suit my specialties. If I don’t get murdered I might be able to work my way onto another ship, if I’m lucky, a smuggling vessel.”

Darcy’s eyes scrunched up slightly, “What about the stone?”

“What about it?” The redhead asked dryly.

“Aren’t we going to try to go get it before they do?”

The pirate’s voice raised and the frustration was showing clearly on her face, “I’m not going after that damned stone! You heard Murdock, it’s probably just a myth anyway and I’m so sick and tired of putting my life on the line for something that doesn’t exist and even if it did and I wanted to go after it, there is no way we would be able to get to it before Hill.”

“I thought you were going to help me..” Darcy’s voice was hurt and she looked like she had tears in her eyes. 

Natasha groaned, “If you wanted the stone you should have stayed with Hill.” 

“Well, what am I going to do?”

“You can go with her if you want, next planet we come across I’ll let you have this shuttle and you can go after her, I’m sure she’d take you back.”

“I’m not going with Hill, I’m here with you and I thought you wanted to help me?”

“Why though!? I’m sorry I’m not everything you dreamed of when you thought about escaping I really am but this dream—“ She made a generalized gesture “Isn’t real.”

“But I don’t want to die…” Darcy was crying now, wiping away the tears quickly in a mixture of anger and fear of the unknown. 

“Nobody does, princess. So I suggest, if you want to live out the rest of your “Short” life, you go somewhere safe and live a happy life, burdened by your own mortality like the rest of us.”

Natasha, despite the guilt boiling in her chest, didn’t take back her words and instead stood up and began to pace around the tiny shuttle. It wasn’t like they would be able to get away from each other. 

She was fuming and Darcy was crying but she stopped her pacing nonetheless when she caught a glimpse of something in the view screen. Without thinking about it she grabbed the princess and pulled her to the back of the shuttle just as a stunning weapon hit the shuttle and everything that wasn’t bolted down hit the ground. 

Natasha pulled her to the ground and covered her as some panels sparked and the first aid kits fell ironically on top of them. 

When the shaking stopped and the lights of the shuttle were completely broken the distinct sounds of a transporter filled the tiny space. Natasha and Darcy looked up to see a strange man standing arrogantly over them. 

He looked on them with pity and pulled out a gun, pointing it at the women, specifically at Natasha’s head since she was currently covering the princess. 

“Princess Darcekanequinama, The Pacis government does not tolerate traitors and you have been sentence to execution without trial. Any last words will be sent to your family as will your remains. DO you have anything to say for yourself, princess?


	11. When something Snaps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha discovers something about herself that she never knew existed and more importantly she becomes, for the first time, a piece on the board that is taken seriously.

Natasha pushed herself off of the princess and stood up, her eyes were darting around the cabin even before she knew what the hell was going on. They were left with very few weapons and by the look of this guy they were going to need something better than a basic taser to survive.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing on my ship?” She snarled.  
Ward chuckled lightly, looking around at the tiny cabin, “”Your” ship, huh? Seems like you downgraded a bit. But, hey—“ He took a step forward raising his gun towards the women “I’m not judging, fewer places I have to chase.”

Darcy had not gotten up off the floor, her sniffling had stopped but now she just seemed frozen in fear. She shifted slightly and Natasha raised a hand slightly, telling her to stay still.

“You need to step off.” Natasha responded to his little speech.

He shook his head, “You’re not understanding—What is your name? I can’t even find you on a database you’re so obsolete—I am here on account of the Pacis government who wants this little traitor dead.”

Natasha made to speak again but he interrupted her, “But I’ll make you a deal, you step away, look away, whatever you have to do—and I’ll let you live.”

Natasha had her hand behind her back and she gestured for Darcy to go underneath the bunk. The princess held her breath and closed her eyes. She stood up and the pirate looked at her like she was crazy . 

“Darcy, what the hell are you doing?” She asked through clenched teeth.

The princess took a step forward and Natasha tried to stop her, Darcy pushed past her arm, “Don’t, Nat. He’s going to kill you and I don’t want that.” She spoke only to the redhead then she turned to the bounty hunter, “I’ll go with you. Just don’t kill me, please. I’ll go back without a fight.” She pleaded with him.

He thought about it for a moment then his eyes flashed and he took a step forward, “Deal” He smiled wickedly and Natasha saw the deceit in his features.

He held out a hand and Darcy made to take it. Natasha’s face burned, a feeling that she wasn’t used to burned in her chest and she wanted to scream. It was then that she interrupted this little exchange and shoved the princess to the side onto the bunk.

She took a bold swing at the bounty hunter however he dodged it easily and threw a well timed punch to her stomach. She collapsed to the floor, coughing and wheezing and clutching onto her stomach.

He shook his head, apparently disappointed in her efforts, he made a little “tut tut” noise and stepped over the pirate grabbing Darcy and pulling her away. She resisted, worried about the woman on the floor still coughing from the blow.

While Natasha was on the floor, the burning in her chest didn’t cease and for a moment the world seemed to slow down to the point where she barely heard the bounty hunter or the small cries from her friend. Maybe she was just sick of being pushed aside, maybe she sick of being patronized or maybe she just particularly hated this motherfucker, either way she found a burst of strength in her soul and she lunged at his ankles.

Using all of her strength and her nails she brought him down to the ground with a yell. He tried to roll away but she kept her grip on his ankles and when he started kicking her away she moved up and trapped his feet underneath her knees. She climbed up and began throwing punches, they weren’t graceful or beautiful and as she swung she growled. 

She got in several hits to his face before he even knew what was happening, when he regained his senses he began fighting back and he easily pushed her away into the side of the small shuttle, she landed with a loud thud as her head hit the metal. But as if the pain didn’t even faze her she pushed off the wall and grabbed at his face, leaving a set of scratches down his neck.

He lashed out in pain but she kicked him in the jaw and he fell backwards out of balance. “You little—“ He cursed and attempted to stand up but Natasha kept him on her level by grabbing the closest object to her, a med kit of all things, and flung it at him, hitting him directly in the forehead.

He yelled and rushed forward, intent now more than ever to kill this mysterious woman. Natasha moved to the side and fell into the back of the shuttle.

“Here!” Darcy screamed.

Natasha looked over to where the princess was about to toss something at her, she held out a hand and Darcy threw it. Natasha caught it but she only had a moment to process what it was before she was dodging a blow from the bounty hunter. He nicked her shoulder with his fist but she ducked away.

She mover underneath his arms and jumped onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing tightly. He gagged and fell backwards slamming her into the shuttle walls causing everything, bolts, loose panels, and equipment to fall on top of her.

She grunted in pain but did not relinquish her hold around his neck. When he stumbled forward she pulled out the weapon that Darcy had thrown her, unsure of what exactly it did, however she stabbed it into the side of his jaw and pressed the trigger.

The little item let out a bolt of electricity to his head, it zapped and screamed as she continued to press down hard into his skin as he screamed and fell to his knees. She never got off of his back even as he crumpled to the floor twitching and yelling out in pain.

Even as he fell unconscious she didn’t relinquish her grip around his neck and the constants stream of power from the device. She didn’t let go until she felt a shaky hand on her shoulder and she stumbled backwards, dropping the stun gun and taking a deep hindered breath.

Darcy grabbed some wire and began tying the unconscious bounty hunter up, wrapping it tightly around his wrists and his feet. When she was satisfied with the job that she had done she pulled him up and leaned him against the wall. Then she wrapped a piece of cloth from one of her shirts and stuffed in his mouth as a makeshift gag. 

When she was done with detaining the bounty hunter she backed away into the pirate who was still breathing heavily against the wall. Natasha pulled her arm around the princess and Darcy looked up at her, “That was a little scary, Nat.”

The pirate raised an eyebrow, “Yeah..” She said a little breathlessly. 

“I didn’t know that you could do that—“ The two women slid down to the down as one and settled on the floor next to the wall. It seemed in the small shuttle they would never be able to get far enough away from the attacker. 

“Neither did I.” Natasha lifted up the small stun gun like weapon and examined it with wide eyes, “Good choice.”

“I had no idea what it was.” Darcy admitted, 

“Well, now we know...”

From the other side of the shuttle Ward let out a sudden gasp of breath as he came to from his trauma. He coughed and then, realizing the cloth in his mouth he began yelling passionately and kicking and wiggling in an attempt to get out of his binds. However, his words were lost in the shirt and all that came out was muffled yelling. 

He glared at the two women and they stood up, looking at him as if he were a wild boar trapped in their little shuttle. A little bit of fear, a little bit of curiosity, and a little bit of disgust. 

Before they could interrogate him however, his form melted from their eyes and he faded away along with a small buzzing sound that filled the cabin. 

“Dammit, no!” Natasha yelled, moving past his fading form and going to the controls. She began hitting buttons but she gave up quickly and he was beamed away back onto his ship. 

Darcy came to her side, “How did he do that?”

Natasha sighed, “It was probably some failsafe so that if he was captured his AI would take over and beam him back onto the ship.”

They looked up as his ship’s thrusters glowed and then zoomed away, maybe to tell his superiors what happened or if his pride was too hurt, probably to regain his footing and prepare to come back more prepared. 

Natasha smacked the console in frustration, “I couldn’t interrupt the beam, we’re dead.”

Darcy’s eyes widened, “What do you mean “We’re dead”?”

“Sorry, bad choice of words, I mean the ship is dead, everything’s fried.”

“Well, I mean, you can fix that, right? You can fix anything,”

Natasha smiled despite herself and shook her head, “Flattered. But no, not without any tools or, and this is important, anywhere to actually land. We’re just sitting ducks out here.”

The princess didn’t say anything and Natasha stood up, moving around her and checking the shuttle’s various circuits and status. “At least life support is fine.. Whatever he threw at us was just meant to knock out our engines.”

When she sat back down, Darcy spoke up again, “So I guess you’re stuck with me a little bit longer.”

“Darcy, I don’t hate you. Obviously, if anything I—“ She stopped, “Look, we’re going to get out of this eventually, I might be able to bring a few of the systems back online, then maybe we can hail somebody. I don’t know yet, but I’ll do something. And I’m not going to leave you until I’m sure he’s taken care of.”

“What were you going to say?” Darcy ignored most everything that she said. 

“What?” Natasha sounded slightly annoyed. 

“Before the fixing the ship thing, you were going to say something but you didn’t, what was it?”

Natasha made a skeptical sound but Darcy didn’t let up, “Were you going to say you cared about me? Was that it?” She asked eagerly.

The pirate rolled her eyes, “Maybe, but don’t push it, Princess.” She said standing up and moving to the back of the shuttle to pull a panel off the wall. 

The princess smiled to herself and closed her fist victoriously, saying softly to herself, “Yes.”

“Hey, princess, could you hand me a sonic wrench?”

Darcy spun around in her chair enthusiastically, “Coming, Cap’n” She lilted happily.


	12. Like Natasha Romanov

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy finds a way to pass the time while they're stuck on the shuttle waiting for help and they find a new dimension to their relationship.

“Hey. Hey, what are you doing?” Darcy made her way next to the pirate at the console at the front of the shuttle. She had been hunched over something for the past hour, working diligently while Darcy hummed to herself and brushed her hair.

Natasha looked up at the princess, “I’m working on something.” Is all she offered before starting work on her item again.

“I see that. What is it?” Darcy moved closer into the pirate’s space and the redhead sighed, looking up only to find that Darcy’s face was practically resting on her shoulder.

“I- I’m not sure, but I have a feeling that they’re going to come in handy at some point.”

“Them? Let me see.” Darcy reached over and took one of the little devices from Natasha’s lap.

“Hey, be careful with that.”

The princes moved the small, roundish device that had only one small button on top. It was a crude design but certainly impressive considering what Natasha had to work with on their little dead shuttle.

“What does it do?” Darcy moved it around between her fingers, being careful not to hit the small black button.

“Well—“ Natasha took the already finished prototype from the princess, stood up and set the little device on a metal platform that came up just a foot above the floor of the ship. She hit the button and stepped backwards; The weapon zapped and sent a wave of electric energy through the small platform, going dead as it hit the floor. It then sparked and blew up.

Darcy jumped as it exploded into tiny pieces but Natasha already had her hands over her ears. “That’s what it does.”

“How did you make that?” Darcy moved closer to the area of detonation while the redhead took a portable extinguisher and washed the area down with a cold covering.

“I took apart that little taser thing you found underneath the bunk, they’re just as powerful but there’s more of them and they can be stuck discreetly. But, they still need some work, they weren’t supposed to explode.” She explained.

“Yeah? That’s so neat. What are you going to call them?”

“I didn’t really think that I would call them anything, I just though it would be nice to have something to defend ourselves with out here.”

“Well, it seems like you can do that just fine without them but no, you should totally make those a thing—You could call them ‘spider bites’ or something like that.” She suggested, noticing how the little bulge in the middle looked like arachnid fangs.

Natasha chuckled, “We’ll see.” And then she sat back down to continue working on the ‘bites’.

Darcy moved next to her. They had been on the little shuttle for about three days and although Natasha seemed to be handling it pretty well, the princess was going a little stir crazy. She counted herself lucky that Natasha didn’t seem to mind when she rambled on and on because at the time it was the only outlet that she had.

“You know what I miss most about living on Pacis?” Natasha looked up, the princess had been talking for nearly ten minutes and this was the first time she asked a question. It caught the pirate off guard.

“Huh?” She grunted, continuing to work on her new weapons.

Darcy sighed and leaned on the palm of her hand, “Well, pre-occupation, that is. I miss the dances.” Her voice became lower and her eyes were distant as she remembered.

“My city would host the most spectacular, romantic, dances. Everyone would dress up in these ridiculously shiny clothes and just go nuts, politicians, royalty, the common people, everyone would just dance and sing. I miss that. Do you know how to dance?”

Natasha just looked up and laughed in response to that question so the princess continued. “I would get to dance with the most fun people, pretty girls who were twice my age, I used to sneak up and ask them to dance. They would always say yes and I always had the best time as they spun me around. But then, everyone would get drunk then it became less of an elegant dance and more of a party. The whole city would be coated in glitter and ribbons the next day.” She sighed, “Have you ever danced with someone dashing?”

“One time my boss Jack got so drunk that when they saw the Tarmen Lemurs that we were smuggling they grabbed onto my arm and started sobbing.” Natasha said dryly.

“Are they that cute?”

“They’re pretty damn cute.”

There was a pause between them until, of course, Darcy broke the silence, “You’re pretty strange, you know that?”

“And what makes you say that?” The pirate asked coolly.

Darcy ignored her question and stood up, she grabbed the pirate’s hand and tugged her away from the chair. “What are you doing?”

Darcy continued to pull at her playfully, “You said you’ve never danced with anybody, well, I’m going to change that.”

“Here?”

Darcy nodded.

“There’s not enough room.”

“You can’t be so picky, Nat. You’ve got to live in the moment; we’ve got a good 6 feet to work with.” The princess explained with a hint of exasperation in her voice.

The pirate groaned but let herself be pulled up, nonetheless. Darcy put her hand on Nat’s waist and guided her hand onto her own shoulder. They moved side to side for a few minutes as Natasha humored her companion.

“See, that’s not so bad, now that you’ve got the hang of it we can really dance.”

“We aren’t dancing now?” Is all Natasha could say before she was ducked to the side and the Darcy pulled her up and spun her away. She came way to close to the side of the shuttle for comfort.

The princess threw her hands up and grabbed onto Natasha’s hands and they splayed their bodies and stepped in uneven circles. They weren’t graceful or even talented steps but Darcy was laughing out loud at the look on Natasha’s face.

“Oh! That was a smile! I saw that!” Darcy cried as she saw the pull of the pirate’s face as they moved around in chaotic circles.

“I don’t know if this is bliss or if I’m just too dizzy to tell the difference.” She said a hint of breathlessness in her voice.

“Isn’t this fun!? This is what happens when you let life take you where it wants.” Both of them were looking a little dizzy as they moved around the small shuttle, precariously sending their bodies to the edge of their metal limits.

Darcy giggled just as her feet twisted under her and she tumbled backwards, she would have hit the side of the shuttle if Natasha had not slipped an arm around her waist and twirl her much in the same way the princess had shown her a few moments ago. 

Darcy’s breath left her as she stared up at the slightly smirking face above her, holding her securely off the ground, flush to the pirate’s body. Natasha’s face seemed to have changed since their encounter with Ward. She just looked… Slightly different.

But now she had the distinct look of a wild cat, hungry and focused. Darcy let out a slightly nervous breath and grinned, “You’re a quick learner.” She giggled. 

Natasha smiled slowly, “You have no idea.”

Darcy saw the moment that Natasha’s inhibitions left her and she closed the space between them, going after exactly what she wanted. Their lips met gently and Darcy let her eyes close, imagining where this could go. She supposed that type of thinking that got her into trouble, imagining a future full of sparks and fireworks, romance, and unyielding heroes.

She waited for a moment, waiting for the kiss to deepen or for Natasha just to take her like she had always imagined but instead she felt herself being lifted up and around, back on her feet. Natasha led her backwards onto the little bunk.

She was still standing when Natasha kissed her ever so gently again but as they parted, their eyes were wide open and Darcy saw the pirate’s face fall. Maybe a little bit more broken than either of them would like to admit. 

Natasha fell to her knees and dropped her face into the princess’s lap, tears falling onto her thighs. Darcy saw the breaking point and she pushed her fingers through her hero’s red hair as the pirate quietly accepted the feeling of vulnerability. She gave a butterfly kiss to the top of her hero’s head, accepting now that maybe her friend had waited a very long time for this. 

Darcy hummed and held onto her body, her dashing hero looked like she was melting but the princess decided that maybe she could do something about that. She had many moments like this in her life, where she realized that her romanticized fantasies of the future were not accurate or fair to those around her however, they were perfect in their own way. Much like Natasha Romanov.


	13. A Ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha and Darcy get some things out of the way and learn a little more about each other and they finally find someone who can get them off the shuttle. Of course, their ride isn't exactly what they were expecting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I want to apologize for this chapter being so small and crappy. It's been a shitty week so far and I just didn't have the time or energy for anything of quality but I hope that you enjoy it anyway :) 
> 
> Also, I wanted to thank Eva for being amazing because I don't know if I would be posting a chapter this week if it wasn't for her :)

“Embarrassed? You don’t have to be embarrassed!” Darcy said her voice sympathetic as she moved to sit next to the pirate.

Natasha had been spending the whole morning trying her best to ignore both Darcy and what had happened before they fell asleep on the floor next to the bunk. As Darcy questioned her she continued to work on a panel, mumbling under her breath “Embarrassing…”

“Why do you feel that way?” Darcy pressed.

Natasha, finally done with avoiding put her tools down and sighed, “Because, it was unprofessional. I guess. I shouldn’t have done that.” She shrugged it off.

Darcy, who had not stopped smiling since they woke up, put a hand on her shoulder. “Why not? I think it was a defining moment in our relationship. You don’t have to be afraid.” She said in her most comforting voice.

Natasha looked at her strangely, and after a moment she spoke, “Why have you been so up front about us? This whole time I’ve been feeling like you’re not telling me something.”

Darcy plopped down next to the pirate, “I guess there is... But I really can’t tell you, I’m afraid that it’ll ruin everything.”

Natasha leaned in close to the princess who inhaled in surprise, “Then why do you look at me like you know who I am?”

Darcy watched her eyes but then looked away, an expression of shame on her features, “I can’t tell you.”

Natasha groaned and rolled away onto her feet, “Then that’s a problem, Princess.”

Darcy followed her, “Wait! Okay, I—Don’t think I should but I will.” She looked down and said more to herself than the redhead, “This wasn’t supposed to be this hard.”

“I’m listening.” Natasha said with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ve seen your face before. I didn’t pick you out randomly.”

“I figured that much. But how? And why?

Darcy sat down on the bunk and motioned for Natasha to join her, the pirate obliged and took a seat next to the princess.

“Someone showed me. We have this, I don’t know if it’s technology or some kind of magic but it can see into the future. Very, VERY, few get to even get a glimpse into the future. And I wasn’t supposed to but I wanted—“ Her face became solemn, “I wanted to know how to end the fighting, the war and restore my planet.”

“Did it show you that?” Natasha was critical but she was also curious.

“No. And I didn’t see much. But I did see you.”

“Did you see anything else? Like what I was doing or something?”

“I just saw your face, you looked tired and you had blood on your neck but you were staring up at something.” She sighed, “So I knew I would meet you, I just didn’t know how or when. But I do know that we were meant to find each other.”

Natasha leaned over between her knees and groaned again, she popped back up, looking at the princess skeptically. “I hate to tell you this, but you probably just saw a piece of my file or something. Nothing was meant to be, at least that’s the way I see it. We create our own destiny and nothing can stop that. So, I’m sorry if you think I’m your long lost soul mate or something or the key to your problems but I’m not. I’m not going to change my plans just because you saw my face before we met.”

Darcy’s face fell, “I believe in what I saw, I don’t know what it meant but I know it was something. But if you really believe that then fine, you can leave. Maybe you’re right; maybe it was just a fluke.”

Natasha moved a wrench back and forth between her finger and she smiled, “I didn’t say that, Princess.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not leaving you and when we get out of here, I’ll help you get your stupid stone. But I’m not doing it because some oracle said it would be. I’m doing it because I kind of like you.”

Darcy grinned, excitement creeping back into her features, “Kind of?”

“A little.” The pirate said with a wink and Darcy jumped up and embraced her until the redhead was trying to wiggle away from the contact.

“Darcy—“She said, pushing the princess’s thick hair out of her face “You’ve been the greatest pain in my ass that I’ve ever met. From now on, let’s do this together, alright?”

She nodded and made a whooping sound, “You know, I thought that when we met it would be like a key in a lock but I am just happy that we can stand each other.”

A beeping sound on the monitor interrupted their plans, Natasha moved quickly to the console. Hitting a few buttons and turning the newly fixed viewing screen on, she watched as the void ahead of them was masked by a ship moving past.

“What is that?” Darcy asked, moving next to Natasha.

“It’s a ship and possibly our way out of here.”

“Can you hail them?”

“I am, we don’t have any answer yet, although they have slowed down. I’m going to try--- Holy—“

Both the women jumped as someone beamed directly into the shuttle without any warning. Natasha got her newly created weapons out of her pocket but her face fell slightly as the face in front of them cleared and became completely solid.

The woman standing in front of them was intimidating to say the least, even without the gun she was currently pointing at them. She was tall with long blonde hair and piercing eyes. She smirked when she caught sight of the two in the shuttle.

“Bobbie Morse.” Natasha said under her breath.

The woman, who Darcy assumed was another pirate, tilted her head slightly, “Do I know you?” She asked calmly.

Natasha cleared her throat, “My name is Natasha Romanov, I used to work on the Righteous Man.”

The woman, Morse, thought about it for a moment “Righteous Man? Fury’s ship?”

Natasha nodded. 

Then the woman’s face lit up with recognition, “Oh! You’re that mechanic that helped fix Birdie!” She grinned as if this were some sort of random encounter at a store and not conversation over the gun she was pointing at them. 

Natasha didn’t have a chance to answer before Morse had called up to her own ship, “Lance, you’ll never believe who I found down here.”

An irritated British accent came over her speaker, “I hope someone who has a lot of money to steal.”

“No, it looks like they’re dry.” She informed him, glancing around at their humble little shuttle. 

“But I did find that mechanic who stopped Birdie from popping his eyes out.” She said enthusiastically. 

“This isn’t the time for nostalgia, tell her thank you and get back. We need to be on the planet’s surface in 12 hours.”

Morse ignored him, and looked back at the two women. She put her gun down with a smirk. “You two stuck?” She asked, even though she knew the answer. 

Darcy nodded. 

“Then come on, I’m feeling nice today, we’ll give you a ride.”


	14. The Mockingbird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy and Natasha get comfortable with their new surroundings and luckily the unique and quirky crew of the Mockingbird are very welcoming.

“Oh my god, are those showers!?” Darcy moved past everyone and dramatically flung herself against the door to the shower/ Decontamination room. 

Morse smirked and gave a sideways glance at the shorter woman, “Stuck there for a while were you?” Natasha shrugged.

“What did I say? No more strays! We’ve got to be at the planet in a few hours now what are we going to do?” The British man from over the comm Barged in, his face flustered and his eyes wide.

He was a rather ordinary looking man with a square face and scruff around his jaw. Compared to Morse he looked more like the Chihuahua companion to a golden retriever. He was beginning to sound like one as well, the way his voice went higher as he spoke.

Morse paid no head to his worries; she dropped her gun and her duffle bag onto the chair next to them and stripped off her vest. “Relax, Lance, I told you, she’s the one who helped Birdie. We owe her something.”

Lance made a loud “Uungh!” sound and drooped his shoulders; he addressed Natasha for a moment, “Thank you for the Birdie thing.” And then he turned back to Morse who had lounged on the couch, “But, now we’ve got to bring this one along too. We’ve got to many strays already, Bobbie.”

Bobbie held up two fingers.

“What?” He asked, his face scrunched in confusion.

She repeated the gesture and nodded toward the decontamination chamber. He turned around just in time to see Darcy peaking out of the door, looking around. Her hair was dripping wet and she was naked as far as everyone could tell. “Do you guys have a towel or something?”

“Push the little green button to your right.” Morse explained calmly.

Darcy’s head disappeared for a moment, “Ah, thank you!”

“Oh, bloody hell!”

“Would you calm down? They can help us, it won’t hurt to have a bigger crew for a little while.”

“Ugh, fine. Fine. But don’t get attached, you know what happened last time.” He walked off back to the bridge of the average sized ship.

Natasha sat down across from their rescuer, “What happened the last time.”

“You don’t want to know.” She said with a chuckle. “And what happened to you two? How’d you get stuck all the way out here?”

“You don’t want to know.”

 

.

.

.

“You failed?” The domineering voice boomed from underneath the grey tunic on the screen.

Ward sneered, “No, I just haven’t finished yet. There were unknown variables that I was not informed of.”

In front of him were a delegation of around six people, all wearing matching tunics that hid their faces disguised their voices. In deals such as this one, anonymity was always the best choice. Off to the side of the main group a woman in a delicately made purple dress stood with her head down and her arms in front of her.

Upon hearing this news she looked up at the O’Nahn man on the screen. Her heart fluttered and she took a step forward, although she knew that it was dangerous to do such a thing. She was the late queen’s sister and she was kept alive only on certain conditions.

“She was with someone. I was not informed that she would be protected.”

“Protected? Who was it?” The royal lady walked toward the screen and the delegation hissed.

Ward glanced at her but ignored her and instead continued to speak to his employers, “I will have your princess soon enough, but a delay should be expected and an increase in price.”

“Who has she sided with?” The woman at the front inquired.

“An unknown. She has not been on any warrants or rosters. I do not know if she is new or just incredible at keeping her identity a secret.”

The woman sighed and put her face in her hands, exhaling as she realized that her niece may have a chance at life after all.

“We expect that you keep to your promise and if you will, we will pay your fee. If you bring in the unknown as well, it will be doubled.”

Ward’s face perked up and he gave a toothy grin, “It will be done.”

 

.

.

.

“Birdie!” Natasha held her arms out and smiled.

An android, who immediately recognized her and ran to greet her. He was the oldest possible model and was probably stolen from a junk yard. He was built in the typical fashion of the older eras and he looked more like a squarish robot that someone tried but failed to place synthetic skin over.

He was mostly covered with a thick jumpsuit that kept his body contained but didn’t help the lumpy and pokey shape of his body. He gave a lopsided and robotic smile, a part of his head whirred loudly at the increase in emotion which older models just couldn’t handle which was why they were discontinued in the first place.

He had one synthetic ear but the other one had fallen off and left a hole where his wires and circuits were visible. If it wasn’t for the sweet and strained smile and bright eyes, he would look almost scary.

He embraced the pirate and made a little squeaking noise, Natasha laughed and patted his back gently. “I’m glad that you remember me.”

He pointed to his eyes and nodded. He looked over at Morse who was incredibly amused by this little reunion, and made a bopping sound with his mouth which didn’t moved properly over the sounds.

“Is his voice box working?” The redhead asked critically, studying the outside of his circuits.

Bobbie shrugged, “It was, I think he can still talk but he just chooses not to. Sometimes he speaks a little but of German once in a while.”

“Huh, maybe his translator is fried?”

“Older models usually start speaking in binary code when that happens, don’t they?”

“Yeah, usually. But Birdie’s not your usual android either.” She said with a wink that the little android reciprocated.

They heard a little gasp and turned around; Darcy was standing in the door way, freshly showered a clean. She was staring at Birdie in apprehension.

Natasha smiled and gestured for her to come closer, “Come here, I’d like you to meet someone.” Darcy moved a little closer, “Birdie, this is Darcy. Darcy, this is an old friend of mine, Birdie.”

The android made a “Whoo-woo.” Sound and held out a clamp like hand. Darcy took it nervously and shook his hand.

She looked sideways at Natasha and said in a low voice, “I’ve never met an android that looks like this one.” She said honestly.

Natasha put a proud arm around Birdie and smirked, “That’s because he’s one of a kind, right?”

“Dah Hah.” The android said pleasantly.

“One time when we were at port with The Righteous Man, Natasha was so intrigued with seeing him that she offered to fix him for free. He’s been working smoothly ever since.” Morse explained to the confused princess.

“Aww. Nat, I didn’t know you had such a nostalgic side to you.”

The pirate looked away, hiding a small smile, then she shrugged, “I can’t help it, you never get to see these old androids outside of museums or junkyards.”

She and Darcy stared at each other for a moment until Morse spoke again and pushed them forward, “Right. I’ll show you around and let you get some sleep, we’ll need your help with something in a few hours. I’m assuming that you want to share a room?” She grinned and Natasha looked away, a little blush creeping up her cheeks.  
Darcy nodded, not fully understanding the question and instead just excited to see the rest of the ship.

“The Mockingbird” Itself wasn’t a massive power house but it was a nice ship and it was obvious that Morse and Hunter had put a lot of time and effort into making the interior comfortable.

The walls and the floors were a comforting cream color and the chairs and carpet were fluffy and soft. The bottoms of the walls were padded as well, which, Natasha wasn’t entirely sure why that was but it added to the comfy if not slightly posh environment.

Bobbie led them down a little hall and into the bridge of the ship, it was the most expansive area of the ship, with rounded ceilings and wide walls. Hunter was sitting in the middle chair with his feet up on the console. Next to him was a third generation Bot, one of the home prototypes that came from home designs. She was tall and made of triangular designs with a blocky and metal face. She apparently had only one function.

“No, I don’t want any bloody waffles, Maple. Leave me be. Shoo, shoo!” The bots hands were simply square waffle makers and she was currently standing above Hunter with her hands out expectantly. 

“Go on, I don’t want any.” The bot clapped her hands together with a clunk and a threatening sizzle. It was enough to make Hunter put his hands up and change his tone, “Alright, alright, easy. I’ll take one waffle.”

Maple tapped her hands together happily and rolled away loudly, he watcher her go “ONE waffle, please!” When he realized that she wasn’t listening he laid back in his chair.

“Out of my chair, Lance.” Bobbie ordered and her second mate jumped slightly.

“Jeez, don’t scare me like that.” But he got up and moved to the other chair anyway.

Morse turned away from him then and gestured for the guests to follow her, “This is the bridge, Ladies and this, since you haven’t been properly introduced, is my only biological crew member and a testament to the reliability of machines.” She quipped.

“Oy, I slept in ONE time. You can’t hold that against me.” He retorted.

“We got boarded by Tuz’Muffs; It took us six months to get rid of those things.”

“Yeah, and where were you, miss perfect?”

She threw her hands up “I was getting supplies! I left for two hours! When I got back I had to pull Tuz’Muffs out of our compressor because the ship was about to explode!”

“Hey, everything happens for a reason. If I hadn’t of slept through that migration, we would never have gotten Lulu and you know it.” He pointed to the corner where a particularly fat tuz’muff was slobbering all over what looked like volcanic rock. It’s eerily large mouth and huge eyes were the only thing visible underneath the layers and layers of orange and purple fur. About the size of a Pomeranian, it didn’t take up much room but in groups they were incredibly detrimental.

“Can I pet her?” Darcy was mesmerized by the drooling and fluffy creature. Lance looked pleased with himself as if he had won the argument.

“Be my guest.” Morse rolled her eyes and Lance stuck his tongue out. Darcy immediately went to greet the drooling creature. It didn’t do anything as she ran her fingers through its long hair, except roll it’s uncomfortably large eyes. 

Natasha turned toward Morse and lowered her voice, “What are you transporting on this thing?”

“What do you mean?” Morse asked, pretending to be oblivious but the shorter pirate looked straight through and she sighed, giving in. “Refugees, mostly. That’s why it looks this way—“ She gestured to the comfortable environment “I got a really good deal. I know that most of us are trying to avoid taking active sides on the Oh’Nahn crisis but it was too good to pass up.”

“Do you have any refugees on board right now?” Natasha asked, concerned because if they did then they were already in more danger than she wanted to be in. 

“No, we just dropped off about twenty people to the Strao system so we’re clean right now.” Bobbie’s face was strained. 

“You know that the Oh’Nahn alliance is going to come down hard on anyone caught helping the rebels.”

Bobbie changed her facial expression then, “And since when has a little bit of danger ever stopped us?” She patted the shorter woman on the back with a grin, “But don’t worry, we won’t even be anywhere near Oh’Nah. What we’re doing next, is our own personal con. And you two are going to help.”

“And why would we do that?” Natasha asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Because, you owe me and I think you ladies deserve a night out.” The captain grinned and winked before turning back and gesturing to the hallway. “C’mon, I’ll show you to your quarters.”

Darcy stood up and followed them, wiping drool off of her hand and onto her pants. They got onto a lift and Bobbie manually punched in the floor number. 

“What happened to your AI?” Natasha inquired. 

Morse turned to her, “she and Hunter got into a fight and he muted her. When she comes back she’s going to be pissed as hell so don’t expect any favors.”

Morse dropped them off at a rather comfortable looking room that matched the rest of the ship in terms of décor. Darcy, the second that Bobbie left them, plopped face first into the mattress while Natasha sat down hesitantly. 

“I thought I’d never be on a real bed again!”

“We were only stuck for one week.”

Darcy lifted her head and looked at the pirate, “Exactly. Forever.” Darcy giggled and rolled over onto her back, leaning on her elbows with a smirk. 

“How long do we have until we get to go on the little trip?” Darcy asked, twirling her fingers idly on the blanket. 

“About ten hours or so? And it’s not a trip, It’s a literal con mission, so let’s just try not to get killed down there.”

“You know this whole thing is so exciting I almost forgot about the stone—“ Darcy moved to her side, watching the redhead closely, “But we’ll get to that when it happens, right?”

Natasha nodded. 

Darcy smiled and put a hand next to the other woman, a moment later she wrapped the hand around Nat’s waist and pulled her onto the bed next to her. Natasha struggled for a moment but then let herself be rolled onto the mattress. 

“You know.. Ten hours is a long time..” Darcy started suggestively.

“Are you going to sleep?” She asked, as Natasha’s head lulled back and she closed her eyes. 

“Hhmm..” She hummed in response. 

Darcy sighed in disappointment but then plopped down and curled herself next to the other woman. She glanced up at the sleeping woman, her face neutral and smooth. Darcy thought she had never seen such a beautiful face. She then closed her eyes and let her self go limp in the pirate’s arms.


	15. The Gala

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha and Darcy get briefed on the current plan they've been roped into by the crew of the Mockingbird and they get a glimpse into the life of the rich.

“So what exactly is the plan and how can we get it over with as fast as possible?” Natasha leaned over the metal table where Hunter and Bobbie had all of their plans sprawled out. 

“Do you want the full overview or do you want the edited version?” The captain asked with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. 

“Edited version, please.”

“Alright.” Bobbie pulled up a few holographic documents along with the photo of a man. He was humanoid but he didn’t look like he came from the milky way, it may have been the third eye and the greenish skin that resembled a Taonan. “This guy, is bad. He does bad things and we’re going to try to get some proof tonight.”

“Out of the kindness of your heart? Or is this another “Favor” for the rebels?”

“Both, someone very powerful has asked us to get some dirt on him. After we’re done with him we can kill him if he gets in our way. Our kind of mission.”

Natasha sighed and pushed herself up onto her elbows, “Right, and how exactly do you plan on doing this?”

“--With this.” Hunter strolled out of the next room with his hands out proudly, he was sporting a sharp suit and fake glasses. His hair was dyed a light shade of purple and he looked like he had just strolled out of some royal party. 

He twirled and Darcy clapped and whistled, he soaked up the attention and Natasha gave the captain a questioning look. Bobbie pulled up a few more holographic documents, “Yeah.. Also, these, he’s having his annual “Charity” gala tonight. He invites some of the most powerful people and uses the time cozy up to them, he also invites a select few of “Regular” people just to show what a down to earth guy he is, I guess. We’ve got the invitations here, courtesy of our powerful friend, and you two are going to help us sell the look.”

“Then what’s this all about?” Natasha gestured to where Hunter was still standing in a dramatic pose.

“I’m glad you asked. Tonight’s the night I get to show off my con skills. I get to seduce the rich guy and get him alone so we can get what we need.” He grinned. 

Natasha looked at Bobbie, she shrugged and went back to her documents, this time shifting through maps of the complex. “Yeah, I know--” She said in recognition of the redhead’s doubtful stare “But I’m not exactly his type and plus, I did the seducing last con and it’s his turn. Don’t worry the mark will be too drunk to notice anything.”

“Notice what?” Hunter interjected. 

“Your horrible acting skills.”

“I beg your pardon, I happen to have amazing acting skills.” 

Bobbie and Nat gave each other a mutual look of doubt and the captain said calmly, “Whatever you say, Lance.”

She continued before he had a chance to retaliate, “Anyway, here are your invitations.”

“Ooh cool!” Darcy snatched the tiny holographic invitation and turned it on, spinning the proof of invite around in little circles. 

Natasha did the same but she looked at it more closely, “You’ve got to be kidding me, we’re your servants?” She asked with a hint of disdain. 

“Yeah, we needed someone to help sell the look and we thought we would have to pay someone but then you two showed up right on time. He’s playing a prince and I’m his sister. Simple as that.”

Darcy’s eyes were wide, “This is exciting.” She said as if she were telling a secret.   
Natasha sighed. 

After that Bobbie went through the rest of the plan and the maps and blueprints of the facility. She went through an exit strategy and what they would be doing up until they got the mark alone. Natasha and Darcy really didn’t have much to do which the pirate was happy about despite the fact that they were still in danger. 

Their job was simply to follow behind and look proper. At which Morse handed them each a small pile of folded clothes and told them to meet them back at the bridge in 20 minutes. 

“Have you ever done anything like this?” Darcy asked as they walked down the hall towards their quarters. 

Natasha shook her head, “No, I haven’t but don’t relax just yet, this could potentially be dangerous if something goes wrong. And I don’t know about you but I’m not getting thrown into the pits of Thyrsen just because Hunter couldn’t resist doing a cowboy accent.”

They made it to their room and Darcy immediately ran to the bathroom to change and get ready, Natasha plopped her clothes on the bed and sighed. She pulled up the main article which was a crimson red with the traditional long V dip that ran down the wearer’s chest and then side. 

She began trying to get it on, with the leggings and the all too complex shoes she had to figure how to even get the clothes to work. The entire process gave her a head ache, she may have been a simple woman but she believed that clothes should be able to go on in one try. 

She had the dress halfway on and her arm was currently stuck in an awkward diagonal position, trapped by one of the many clear straps holding the dress together, when Darcy stepped out of the next room. Natasha stopped and stared, her body still twisted uncomfortably in her attempts. But the princess was enough to make anyone stop what they were doing and reconsider their life choices. 

Her dress was similar to the Natasha’s except it was a light pink color and the top V that slipped it’s way down her bosom connected to another V cut that ran up her thigh meeting at her hip. It was all to revealing and Natasha was caught off guard at how natural she looked with her hair falling in loose curls down her shoulders and back.   
Her big brown eyes popped against her pale skin and the light pink of the dress. She broke out in a toothy smile as she considered the situation and for a moment Natasha had forgotten how ridiculous she looked. And the fact that she was pretty sure she was stuck. 

“Here.” She said holding back a laugh as she approached the pirate and freed her wrist from one of the straps that had snagged her. “Let me help you.” She pulled Natasha’s arm through a hole and twisted the dress around her while the redhead let the princess handle her like a doll. 

Darcy continued to move Natasha’s body around until she was properly in the dress and then she proceeded to mess with the pirate’s hair. After a few minutes Darcy stopped and looked at her strangely, perhaps because the redhead had not spoken the entire time.

“What?” The princess asked, tilting her head to the side curiously.

A moment later Natasha answered, “I—Nothing. I’m just looking forward to getting this over with.”

Darcy smirked at her, “And it has nothing to do with this—“ She trailed her fingers up the length of her skirt towards her hip, watching the pirate enticingly. She leaned forward as Natasha’s eyes widened slightly. “It’s okay to feel things, you know. It’s okay to want something.” She said, her voice low.

Natasha inhaled sharply as Darcy came ever so close to her jaw line and then turned away quickly and walking to the bed to pick up the shoes. Natasha looked around, snapped out of her daze and shook herself.

Darcy handed her the complicated looking shoes, “Can you get these one.” She said with a grin.

Natasha blushed and took the shoes.

When they made it back to the bridge Natasha was strained to say the least and she tried to cool her face off. In comparison, Darcy looked stunning as always, her face clear and her eyes bright and excited.

Bobbie looked up as they came through the door, she was wearing a more modest dress, however, it was twice as ostentatious with large, wide shoulder pads riddled with intricate jewels and beads. Bobbie’s face was painted as well to match the design on Hunter’s face.

To his sleek costume they had added the jewels and the beads, and yet it was still less shocking of a transformation. Hunter raised an eyebrow at their guest’s slimming and light outfits, “You guys wanna trade?” He asked shaking her shoulders and letting the stones and beads clack together uncomfortably.

“No thanks.” Darcy said with a chuckle.

“Alright.” The captain said messing with the controls at the front of the bridge, “Let’s go, we don’t want to be late. Remember; Manners and act as snooty and posh as possible.”

“That won’t be too hard for me.” Hunter said proudly, either getting into character or revealing a terrible lack of self knowledge.

“You once got stuck in a dumpster because you saw a donut.” Bobbie reminded him dryly and then before he had a chance to respond she flicked the switch and they were transported down to the planet.

Darcy gasped out loud when they arrived in front of the sprawling manner where the gala was being held. The small planet, called Thuna, was barely even a blip on maps and was owned exclusively by the mark’s family. The sky was a brilliant shade of purple and it held a stable climate.

The plant life on the planet was equally as vibrant with bursting trees of pink and purple and green. The building was next to a small ocean and the cool breeze moved through the environment, shuffling the grass and the trees. Darcy awed as a fluorescently blue bird moved past them, hovering a few feet from her face and then moving out towards the surrounding trees.

“Let’s go. You two stay behind us. You can do whatever you want when we get in but make sure to sell the part.” Bobbie said, ignoring the gorgeous surroundings.

Natasha and s Darcy stayed still while Morse and Hunter moved ahead, when the pair was five feet ahead they started walking. Darcy offered her arm and the pirate took it hesitantly. 

They walked in behind a small line of equally as ostentatious guests in similar patterns and were the greeted at the door by a short woman with orange skin and a seriously impressive up do.

“Invitations, please.” She said in a bored but polite voice.

They revealed their invites and the small woman let them pass without another question.

If the outside environment was impressive in terms of how beautiful nature was then the inside of the house was a testament to the ongoing goal of living things to one up each other. They passed through a massive gold archway into a dance floor that was made for kings.

The music, the smell of expensive and rare food, and the blinding colors all added to the statement that this man was rich and he intended to prove it.

Morse and Hunter stopped just inside to survey the other guests and to find their mark.

“Shit.” Morse said in a low voice. They all had transmitters in their ears so they could all hear her perfectly.

“What is it?” Natasha asked immediately.

“The Howling Commandos. What the hell are they doing here?” Morse gestured discreetly to a few of the guests and particularly at a handsome brunette man who was already talking up their mark first.

Natasha’s eyes widened, they were, of course, a very well know group of pirates slash contacted criminals but she had never seen them much less be anywhere near them. She gestured to the brunette near the mark, he was wearing expensive clothing and his hair was pulled back perfectly, “Is that Steve Rogers?” She asked.

Captain Rogers was the notorious leader of the band of criminals, he was known for daring and ridiculous heists that were mostly politically driven. He was a modern day Robin Hood, so to speak. She had always wanted to see him in action.

However, Bobbie shook her head, “No. That’s Captain Rogers.” She pointed lightly to, not the incredibly attractive brunette in the expensive clothing, but to a small blond waiter. He seemed nervous and tense and he kept getting irritated looks from the guests.

He nearly tripped and spilled all of his drinks as he walked towards them. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Natasha said again.

Bobbie chuckled, “Never meet your heroes, kids.”

“That’s the guy Carter left in charge of her outfit?”

Bobbie nodded, “Apparently with good reason, too. Hunter, go and talk to the mark, I’m going to look around a bit and scope out the security. And you two—“She glanced behind her, “Just don’t do anything stupid, alright?”

The women nodded and a moment later they were left alone in the vast expanse of the gala. Darcy took her hand and Natasha glanced at her. “This is going to be fun.” She said with an excited shrug of her shoulders. 

Natasha scanned the room around them, the notorious pirate leader had just spilled some kind of sauce on his shoes and had stumbled into the wall, completely off balance and the rest of the high end guests were chatting and dancing almost obnoxiously to the pirate. 

She sighed, “Yeah, so much fun.”


	16. Just the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final showdown with Ward and a test of all their strength goes down at the part which was supposed to be their break night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So this is the final chapter! I know it's pretty rushed but I needed to get it done and I didn't want to just leave it unfinished so I took quite a bit out in the middle. 
> 
> Anyway, Thank you to everyone who commented and read!!! I appreciate you guys so much!!

“Dance?” Darcy held out her hand for the redhead to take, she smiled and Natasha was in awe, not only from the slightly revealing dress that the princess was wearing but also the spark in her brown eyes. It terrified the pirate but also excited her beyond reason.”

Her first reaction was, of course, to say no. To remind the princess that they had more pressing matters to be worried about but instead she took the other woman’s hand and let herself be led to the dance floor.

The band played a light and unassuming melody, the kind that set the mood but didn’t generally stick in one’s head.

“You really have a thing about dancing, don’t you?” Natasha teased.

Darcy laughed and put her hand on the other woman’s waist, “Have I told you about the balls that my family would organize?”

“A few times.” Natasha relaxed into the rhythm of the dance as she was twirled lightly to one side of the princess’s body.

“Then that should make sense.”

“I bet you had lines of suitors waiting for a dance.”

Darcy’s feet were perfect and graceful as she kept the both of them in time of the music. Natasha couldn’t tell if they were among a lot of other people or if everyone had left them to the dance floor because for a few moments the rest of the world, the halls, the golden ceilings, and the statues of gold, faded away. She didn’t even worry where her feet were or her body, Darcy was moving for the both of them. She was just locked into a trance with the princess’s eyes.

“Always.” The princess said with confidence.

“How would you choose?”

“I didn’t choose. That’s not how it works at home, I danced with everyone. And everyone was fun in their own way.” Darcy dipped the redhead until she had a good upside down view of the hall.

“Wouldn’t dancing lose its charm after a while? If you dance with everyone wouldn’t it lose the specialness of the act?”

Darcy laughed, “No?” She said with a hint of confusion, “Why would it? Everyone is special in their own way so it’s never old or boring.”

“You’re—“ Natasha shook her head and dropped the sentence.

Darcy didn’t pursue the topic but she did stop the spinning and for a moment the pirate was caught off guard, “Let’s explore!” Darcy said with enthusiasm. 

Before Natasha new what she was happening she pas being pulled away by the princess. They moved through the crowd of unsuspecting guests and they got a glimpse of where Hunter was chatting up the mark. The pirate had no idea where they were going but she was pretty sure that Darcy did (or maybe she didn’t). 

They moved up a winding set of stairs with gold floors and handcrafted rails, they moved up and over the rest of the crowd only coming in contact with a few other guests as they moved up. They were two floors above the party when Darcy swung a right and led her down a similarly epic hall but this one led to a set of white doors. 

Darcy, curious as to what was behind those doors of course went toward them first, she let go of the pirate and swung the doors open revealing a massive balcony. It looked over the sea and went around the outside of the house.

The princess inhaled the sweet air of the planet and walked forward, putting both hands on the boundary, looking over the expanse of the sea, toned in purple from the setting sun. Natasha moved next to her and appreciated the view. 

“Is this all you’ve ever wanted?” The redhead asked, continuing to stare at the sea. 

“To see this? Maybe. I just wanted to see everything that I could before I die-- Since I don’t have much time, you know.”

“I thought you were planning on getting the Anima stone?”

Darcy shrugged, “I am. But--” She glanced over at the pirate, “What if I die on the way to it ? I just don’t know and I’m afraid that I’ll leave and I will have never gotten to experience this.” She gestured to the humbling view. 

“You know I never started seeing things until I met you?”

Darcy gave her a curious look.

“Yeah, I survived. That’s just what I did; it’s what I still want to do. I kept my nose down and focused on my work.” She paused, regret clouding her face, “We had been to so many places, I always had an opportunity to go and see but I never did. I guess apart of me was afraid that they would leave me if I ever stopped working. I can’t imagine what I’ve missed at this point.”

The princess put a hand on Natasha’s shoulder, “Well, you’re seeing things now, right?”

“Thanks to you.” Natasha looked down, “You’ve effectively ruined my plans and drug me into this ridiculous situation and yet I think this is the first time I’ve ever actually experienced a sunset. And for that, I’m thankful, princess.”

“Well--” Darcy began softly, “I hope there are many sunsets to come.”

“And sunrises.”

Darcy leaned in to kiss the redhead and Natasha closed her eyes, content to just enjoy the moment. When their lips met it was perfect, Natasha reveled in the fact that if felt like they were meant to be this close. That being with this woman was as instinctual as breathing. 

.

.

.

 

72 Hours earlier. Outside the Planet of Drarth. 

“I’m impressed. I really really am. And that’s not an easy feat.” Ward stepped over the tied up legs of Maria Hill. 

She was tied and gagged on the floor next to America Chavez, Clava, and Claire Temple. They were in the same condition that she was in. Ward paced in front of them with a cocky grin, in his hands he held the Anima stone. The three pirates glared at him and America attempted to worm her way out of the binds but with little success. 

“I mean, going to the Monks of Thahn, what a ballsy move AND you managed to get your way through the puzzles. I’m impressed. And I want to thank you for doing the grunt work for me here.” He threw the stone up in the air and caught it with a smirk. 

“This artifact is going to be confiscated by the O’Nahn government; we thank you for your cooperation and hope that you have a safe journey back.” He said in fake tone of professionalism then he turned to one of the soldiers that the Pacis offered him and gestured to the women, “Put them in the hold. I would kill them but they’re worth more to the officials alive.”

Then he turned back to the captives, “But that can change if any of you try anything.”

A few of the soldiers moved past him and picked the pirates up off the ground, leading them kicking and yelling to the ship’s cargo hold. Ward chuckled as they cursed at him through the gags. 

“Are we going back to Pacis, Sir?” The soldier asked the bounty hunter.

“No, I’ve got something to pick up first.” He held the rock, which, for all it was worth did not look all that special. It was grey and rough with small patches of dull crystals.

“And I’ve got just what I need to bate her in.”

.

.

.

Darcy was standing, body flushed to the redhead’s, they had found a private corner of the balcony and they were enjoying it immensely. They breathed heavily as their lips moved together and their tongues slipped inside.

Darcy let her hands roam up and down the pirate’s body, making her breath hitch and her body to shiver. Natasha had her fingers tangled in the princess’s thick brown hair and she clutched harder as Darcy’s hand moved downward between her legs.

“Something’s happened; meet us back at the ship immediately.” Bobbie’s concerned voice rang through both their ear pieces and they jumped at the sudden interruption.

“Damnit!” Natasha cursed and hit the wall behind her.

However their anger of being interrupted faded as the sound of a ship’s engine approached. They looked around nervously for a moment as everything went silent. They gasped and sprinted toward the door as a patrol vehicle of unknown make rounded to the back of the house and nearly caught them In the search light.

They slammed the door and fell behind the safety of the walls. Natasha grabbed the other woman’s hand and rushed down the hall to the staircase. They took the stairs two at a time.

They were a floor down when the pirate stopped dead causing the other woman to crash into her, however the redhead didn’t move. Natasha was staring with wide eyes down at the party floor.

There was a disturbance that had nothing to do with Bobbie and Hunter’s mission. The guests of the prince’s gala were standing nervously around the dance floor, whispering among themselves and shifting.

Through the crowds soldiers in blank uniforms were moving in and out of the people, checking faces and asking for weapons. Natasha specifically saw as one of the soldiers approached Bobbie and she faked a smile still staying in character. A way from her Lance was hiding behind the Prince since he was one of the few that weren’t being searched.

Natasha gripped the edge of the staircase as a familiar man made his way to the middle of the floor, bowing to the prince with a wicked smile.

“I apologize for the interruption, you highness but this is a matter of extreme importance. When we are finished here we will be out of your way.” He gestured one of the soldiers and they instructed their men to hurry up.

“Ladies and Gentlemen and all variation thereupon, we believe somewhere in this house are a pair of criminals. They are potentially dangerous but I promise they will be taken care of.”

Natasha clearly saw Morse and Hunter exchange glances, along with the entire crew of Howling Commandos who were scattered within the crowd.

“How did he find us?” Darcy whispered. Her voice shaky and nervous.

Natasha didn’t respond and instead she grabbed onto the princess’s arm, “Come on, we need to get you out of here.” They ducked down and moved back up the stairs, just in time as a group of soldiers began making their way to the staircase.

They sprinted quietly back to the balcony, when they opened the doors and checked to make sure there weren’t any patrols moving around they stepped outside. Natasha looked over the edge of the boundary, moving quickly and searching for any way down.

She concluded that apart of the house in the corner would have to do and she gestured for the princess to follow her. Darcy glanced down at the height and the precarious climb down and she stopped, staring at the pirate.

Natasha didn’t give her a chance to say anything, “Climb down here, I’ll be right behind you.” She let the princess use her for balance as she threw her legs over the fence and slowly began climbing down.

“Stop right there!”

Natasha glanced at the princess before turning around and facing the guards that had caught up to them. She threw her hands up and tried to act innocent; they grabbed her wrists and pushed her forward. One of the soldiers checked over the edge of the balcony where the woman had been but concluded a moment later that it was clear. A few feet below him Darcy clung onto the vines that climbed up the side of the house, closing her eyes and hoping that she wouldn’t be caught.

Natasha was dragged back down to the interrupted party where the atmosphere was just as tense as when they left. The soldiers pulled her down the stairs and they stopped in front of Ward. He turned around when he heard them approach and he smiled as he saw who they had caught.

“Well, well, it’s you again. Where is the princess?”

The soldiers pushed her forward to face him. Natasha remained silent, looking away from the bounty hunter. She hoped that Darcy was getting out of here and she wanted to give her some extra time to escape.

Ward sighed when he saw that she was ignoring him and he put a hand up to turn her face towards his, “Now, no name, I’ll ask you again, where is the princess?”

He got a face full of spit instead of an answer. He closed his eyes and sighed. He wiped her saliva from his face and proceeded to land a particularly hard punch to the redhead’s stomach.

She dropped to the floor coughing and he walked away shaking his head. “That’s fine. Take her away. This’ll work better.” He moved to one of the soldiers who was holding a locked metal box, he punched in a few keys and it popped open.

Inside was the Anima stone, Natasha tried to get a glance at what it was but she wasn’t sure. Although she did have an idea. The soldiers pulled her away, lifting her off the floor and dragging her away towards the exit.

Ward then made an announcement, holding the stone up high above his head as his eyes scanned the crowds and the windows. Natasha struggled against the soldiers but they pulled her back through the doors.

She hoped that Darcy was already gone by this point, but that didn’t help her with her situation. She continued to kick and struggle as they escorted her outside to the courtyard where Ward’s ship was sitting in the middle of the court. They were planning on taking her to the ship.

She went limp a few feet away from the ship and then used her body weight to pull them down, wrenching their arms. Then she aimed a hard kick with the spiky and complicated shoes at on of their faces. He went down with a crushed a bleeding nose.

She rolled out of the other man’s grasp and head butted him as he tried to catch her, he shook it off quickly but not before she kicked his feet out from underneath him and punched him, his head hitting the stone underneath it.

He went limp and she stood up, pulling a knife off of the unconscious man. The other soldier stood up as well, holding his nose as blood gushed out of it. He made to grab his gun but she lunged forward and snapped his hand away, twisting his arm and plunging the knife into his shoulder. As he stumbled down she kicked him, knocking him unconscious.

She practically growled as she stood up, straightening her dress and then getting the guns off of the soldiers. She didn’t want to kill them, they were unmarked which led her to believe they were just grunts from Pacis.

She tucked the knife away in her dress and gripped the stolen guns; she didn’t waste any time going for the kill. She moved towards the front door, her face focused and her arms up, aiming the guns in front of her.

She kicked the natural wood doors open and stood tall as everyone in the room, including Ward stopped and looked at her. In an instant every soldier in the room immediately had their weapons up rushing forward. One by one she aimed shots at them, taking out either knees or shoulders until nearly all of them were on the ground.

The guests jumped and screamed and suddenly the entire room was a flurry of movement. Ward stood in front of the commotion, his face blank even as his soldiers were injured and struggling.

“Who the hell are you?” He asked, his face confused and slightly impressed.

The pirate aimed a shot at him but he dodged it expertly, she moved forward antagonizing the bounty hunter. He lifted his own gun and ducked underneath the cover of the stage.

She gave a few warning shots around his position, still headed toward him through the stampede of people who were rushing through the doors all at once, any of the soldiers that she didn’t incapacitate were run over from crowds.

“What the hell are you doing?” Bobbie was struggling against the crowds.

Natasha looked back at her, surprised. This gave Ward the chance that he needed to get a shot out. He hit the guns in the pirate’s hand and she jumped away just before he could shoot her in the chest.

She rolled underneath one of the tables just as he stood up, confident that he had her cornered. He walked cautiously towards the tables, pacing lightly where her position was.

He was surprised with a knife in his leg; she threw it directly into his knee. He fell around his wound and she slid out from underneath the tables, punching him backwards and pulling the knife back out. He cried out in pain but watched her angrily. She kicked the gun away from him and then stood above him. Her dress was ripped from the action and it had spatters of blood all over it.

She looked utterly terrifying standing over him.

He laughed, still clutching onto the deep cut in his leg. “You’re pretty good, I’ll give you that. But you’re stupid. You know that?”

She raised an eyebrow in response.

“You want to be invincible; you can’t have such a blatant weakness.” He gestured his head to the doors and she paused but then looked.

Darcy was being held by three soldiers, they had her handcuffed and she had a split lip. The soldier pushed the gun into the side of her head and she shuddered.

“Give up. You’re not going to win this one.”

Darcy shook her head but Natasha dropped the knife nonetheless. Ward smiled and stood up, hobbling slightly on his injured leg. “So predictable.” He said with a sneer and tied the redhead up. She struggled only slightly, realizing just now how much she didn’t want anything to happen to the princess. 

Ward shook his head and went to confront the princess, leaving the pirate with two soldiers that came to help. The redhead looked away, her anger boiling inside her while at the same time that feeling of helplessness washing over her like a bad memory. 

That was when she caught a glimpse of blue eyes from underneath the table. Her eyes locked with the small man hiding underneath one of the tables. His face was determined and impressed. She could tell he was torn at what he should do. 

He held up a small remote with a button on top. It was a detonator, she recognized immediately. She glanced around, understanding what he was planning on doing. Her thoughts of escape were interrupted by a harsh push forward, Ward was urging the soldiers to move her to the door. 

She sighed and closed her eyes, wishing that she would be able to cover up her ears as well. Almost instantly afterward the walls behind them blew, collapsing a massive portion of the staircase and sending shrapnel through the air, nearly hitting Natasha as it flew by, she felt something hit her side but she was pushed down by the force and didn’t feel anything after that.

The explosion exposed a backroom underneath the stairs which was probably meant for the Howling commandos to get through as an exit strategy. The soldiers holding her were thrown forward with the force and she was thrown with them. 

Ward and Darcy hit the ground violently as pieces of the floor and staircase rained down on them. 

Natasha doesn’t waste any time getting out of her binds despite the fact that her ears are ringing and she could barely see anything through the dust and debris. Ward was on his feet just as fast as she was and he tacked her to the ground. 

Natasha kicked him off and used a piece of wood to block a punch before rolling over and dodging another throw. She ducked a few more times before taking the piece of wood and slapping across his face. That barely helped to stop him and he twisted the weapon out of her hands and swung it at her. 

She dodged it and moved away only to become trapped by the O’Nahn at the back of the room, she struggled against his grip on her wrists and she headbutted him, sending him back with a cry of pain. She grabbed the only thing that was in her reach which was a broken bottle. When he stood up straight and lunged at her again she brought the bottle down against his face. It ripped through the side of his face and down his neck. 

Blood poured out of the wound and he screamed, falling backwards. At this Natasha grabbed a pipe from the ground and slammed it down, his screaming and writhing stopped and he fell unconscious. Natasha dropped the pipe breathing heavily, She spit at the body in front of her and spat out in a hoarse voice "I'm Natasha Fucking Romanov."

She looked up to see the princess running up to her but instead of a joyful smile or a happy embrace, Darcy’s eyes were concerned and her line of sight was lower than the pirate’s face. Natasha glanced down to see the massive gash in her side, nearly into her stomach it was pouring blood and she realized that she was shaking. 

Before the pain could fully hit, her legs gave out and she crumbled to the ground. Darcy was at her side a moment later, lifting her head up gently and holding her close. Natasha’s eyes were blurry and she was having trouble making out exactly what Darcy was saying but she certainly enjoyed the view. However, she wished that she could see the princess smile once again before she died. 

Her vision was tunneling and Darcy seemed to be screaming at her but it was only coming through as a muffled beat. Natasha smiled as everything went black and she felt at peace for the first time in her life. She was content to die now. If she had to.

But just as everything drifted off she was suddenly drowned in all the sensations of her environment again and she inhaled a panicked breath as she shot up, her eyes wide as she felt like someone had just electrocuted her. She gasped and started coughing, her lungs fighting against the air she was sucking in. 

The world was extremely bright all of the sudden. Too bright and she closed her eyes against the sensations. She was still reeling when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her body and she chanced a glance down to see the princess crying over her. 

She, more instinctively than anything, clutched on to Darcy in return, her head spinning and the world speckled with yellow dots.

“What happened?” Natasha choked out.

“I lost you.” Darcy said through tears not relinquishing the grip on the pirate’s waist. 

Natasha brought a hand down to her side, feeling only the rip in her dress. Her skin had been healed and she was no longer bleeding. Also, there was no more blood despite the fact that from further examination she was laying in a pool of her own blood. Beside them, that Damned rock that had began all of this was shattered into pieces. 

Everything locked into place and Natasha pulled away from the princess, looking into her eyes, “Darcy, what did you do?”

The brunette sniffled, “It can heal people, I used my blood to activate it and it brought you back to life.” She ducked back underneath the Pirate’s arms. 

“But Darcy, your life? Why did you do that?”

The princess looked up at her, “I would rather live a short life with you than I long one without you.” She paused, “Don’t question it. I knew what I was doing.”

Tears fell from the pirates eyes and she clutched onto the other woman for dear life, around them the congregation shuffled back in to gawk at the scene of violence. Bobbie and Lance were at the front of the group looking a mix of shock and worry. 

Steve Rogers stood up from where he had been and joined his own crew, Natasha had a feeling that he was going to want to talk to her after all of this was over for for now she paid no mind to him. All that mattered was the woman in her arms and the fire in her heart. 

Darcy looked up at her and suddenly the whole world faded, “What are we going to do now?” She asked. 

“I don’t know.” Natasha said with a little shake of her head, “But we’re going to do it together.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey again! Thank you so much to Eva who was kind enough to beta this chapter for me!  
> She's amazing guys and if you want to read some of her works just go here! https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4073828/NISSA10
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! :D


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